NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA/NOAA Suomi-NPP Sees Fires in Northern Australia

The NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite (S-NPP) carries an instrument so sensitive to low light levels that it can detect wildfires in the middle of the night. On December 03, 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi-NPP acquired this image of wildfires blazing in northern Australia by using its “day-night band” to sense the fire in the visible portion of the spectrum. The brightest parts of the fire are white; smoke is light gray.

Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Defense. Credit image: UW-Madison/CIMSS/NASA/NOAA. Caption by Rob Gutro.