This visible image of north central Australia was taken from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite on Sept. 22, 2011 at 01:35 UTC. Fires in this image are depicted as red dots, representing high surface area temperatures.
Numerous wildfires are burning in Australia's Northern Territory. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on-line, a week-old wildfire located southeast of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory is still threatening a number of cattle stations. Another fire may cross into South Australia and affect trails in the Simpson Desert. That "scrub fire" is about 9 miles (15 km) north of the Southern Australia border.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA Goddard. Caption by Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.