NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of southeastern Australia today—the smoke from the deadly wildfires there is plainly visible from Aqua's orbit 440 miles (705 kilometers) above Earth.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, MODIS Rapid Response Team
Join Our Community of Science Lovers!
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of southeastern Australia today—the smoke from the deadly wildfires there is plainly visible from Aqua's orbit 440 miles (705 kilometers) above Earth. (Sites determined to have active burns are outlined in red.) Kinglake and Marysville, two of the villages most ravaged by the fires, are located in the large, central burn area.
If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.
I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.
If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
