U.S. Air Quality

International: Smoke in Thailand and improved access to global MODIS images

A recent story about fires in Southeast Asia led me to search through the sites to examine the latest MODIS images. I was very pleased to find that MODIS Rapid Response has recently upgraded their site. They have expanded their coverage and added many more regional maps and subsets, making it possible to get near-realtime images of much more of the land areas of the world. The Asia subsets are particular appreciated, albeit mis-labeled as just "Southeast Asia." Great job on the upgrade, Rapid Response!

As for those fires in Thailand, they are pretty significant, covering the northern part of the country and putting air quality at the unhealthy levels (right image from Rapid Response, left image courtesy of the Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment). The extent has been pretty much restricted to the northern region, since air quality further south here in Malaysia is still good.