View From Space: Fires Subsiding in Northern India
Fires that were assumed to be agricultural in nature seem to be subsiding in this Terra satellite natural-color image taken on November 02, 2014
Earlier in October, the Aqua satellite imaged India and there were many more fires burning. It would seem plausible to conclude that the field clearing portion of the agricultural season is coming to a close.
Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands (the instrument on the Terra satellite), are outlined in red. Each hot spot is an area where the thermal detectors on the MODIS instrument recognized temperatures higher than background. When accompanied by plumes of smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for fire.
This image appears to have more haze and smoke in it than the one taken on October 21. That may be due to the number of fires that have blazed over the course of the past few weeks and the build up of smoke and haze over the region from those fires.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard, Lynn Jenner
