Haze over the Bay of Bengal

Haze over the Bay of Bengal

By early November 2011, haze had hovered along the southern slopes of the Himalaya for days. The river of haze flowed toward the southeast along the mountain range, and turned southward over Bangladesh. On November 7, 2011, the Moderate Resolution Imaging

Haze along the Himalaya

Haze along the Himalaya

Haze hugged the southern slopes of the Himalaya in early November 2011. At about 10:45 a.m. on November 3, 2011, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of haze stretching from Pakistan

Wildfires in northern India

Wildfires in northern India

The fire season was well underway in northern India as many dozens of fires burned near the Pakistan border in late October, 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite captured this true-color image on October 27, 2011.

Ten years of satellites watching fires worldwide

Ten years of satellites watching fires worldwide

This video takes you on a narrated global tour of tens of millions of fires detected from space between July 2002 and July 2011. TThe video was created from new satellite data visualizations, and is combined with satellite views of vegetation and snow cover to show how

Wildfires and smoke in Portugal

Wildfires and smoke in Portugal

Dozens of wildfires burned across Portugal on October 14, 2011 when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite captured this true-color image as it passed over the region. A few fires, marked in red and accompanied by plumes of

Agricultural fires polluted the air over eastern China

Agricultural fires polluted the air over eastern China

Haze filled the air over the coastal plain of eastern China in early October 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on October 7, 2011.A long band of haze, roughly 100 kilometers wide, extends

Burning straw creates heavy fog in China

Burning straw creates heavy fog in China

The fog, which occurred about three days ago, covered large areas of the fertile and densely populated North China Plain. On Sunday in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, a heavy mist caused 52 flights to be cancelled and 42 to be delayed. A major highway running

Fires in Russia and China

Fires in Russia and China

Smoke clouds the skies across northeastern China and southeastern Russia. The dry, windy weather of autumn created hazardous fire conditions in northeast China.Since wildfires have occurred frequently recently, the national forest fire prevention authorities issued

Fires along the Rio Xingu, Brazil

Fires along the Rio Xingu, Brazil

The rainforest of South America, also known as Amazonia, has been undergoing a continual and accelerated conversion process into farmlands (including pasture for livestock) since the early 1960s. This process has typically been achieved by clearing the forest using

Haze over Eastern China

Haze over Eastern China

A long band of haze, roughly 100 kilometers wide, extends east-west southwest of Beijing. South of Beijing, the haze fans out, extending from the shores of Bo Hai to the shores of the Yellow Sea. Along the Yellow Sea shoreline, the haze is thick enough to obscure the