Thick
clouds of smoke from wildfires in southern Greece blow over the Ionian Sea and
southward to the Mediterranean in late August 2007. The Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument, on NASA's Aqua
satellite, captured this image of Greece on August 26, 2007. Red outlines
indicate places where MODIS detected actively burning fires. A line of fires
stretches along the western coast of Greece's Peloponnesus Peninsula. To the northeast, a large fire casts a plume of smoke over the city of Athens. The island of Crete sits at the lower right in this image.
According
to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), at least 63 people had died in
the fires as of August 28. Hundreds of homes had been burned and thousands were
forced to evacuate. The government has declared a national emergency.
The
MODIS Rapid Response Team provides images of the region twice a day in varying
resolutions and formats, including an infrared-enhanced version that highlights
burn scars.
--NASA and SPACE.com Staff
Credit: Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
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