NASA MODIS Image of the Day: April 3, 2012 – Fires on the Iberian Peninsula
NASA’s Aqua satellite spotted several fires and smoke in northern Spain in the Cantabrian Mountains. The mountains are evident from the white snow atop them. There are also some fires burning in the Braga, Viana do Castelo, and Porto municipalities of northeastern Portugal. According to Portugal’s forestry web site, 38 percent of the total land surface of the country is forested. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies onboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured an image of fires and smoke on March 28, 2012 at 13:15 UTC (9:15 a.m. EDT). The fires appear as red squares and smoke from the fires appears gray in color. Smoke plumes from the Cantabrian Mountains blow north over the Bay of Biscay then westward across the Atlantic Ocean.
