Months ago, Australia bushfires broke out and they’ve only continued getting bigger. Several hundred fires have raged over the country to the point of it being so bad, that images from space can now spot the flames and smoke.
1. The satellite photographs the Western part of Earth every 10 minutes. The photographs from space show Australia’s bushfires smoke.
2. This photo above shows the Australian bushfires on December 31st. The bushfires have burned more than twice the amount that burned in the Amazon’s rainforest during 2019. The satellite that captured this one is the Himawari-8 satellite which launched October 2015 and weighs about as much a full-size pickup truck.
3. This one above is from the Himawari-8 satellite on January 2nd.
4. This one shows an infrared view on the hotspots on November 7th.
5. The fires are now so big that if it was put in a straight line, it would stretch from Sydney, across the Indian Ocean and all the way into Afghanistan.
6. Over 14 million acres of land has burned.
7. The devastation is hard to imagine.
8. The fires have continued to spread because of a very long drought.
9. It has also claimed the lives of about half a billion animals.
10. The bushfires have displaced hundreds of thousands of people so far.
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More info: Space
Volunteers firefighters are working around the clock to try to contain the fires, though it may continue burning until cooler temperatures come in the fall.