Agricultural Fires in Washington

Agricultural Fires in Washington. Fall has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means it’s harvest time. In the wheat fields of Washington and Idaho in the northwestern United States, scattered fires (red dots) burn through the wheat stubble. Because of the semi-arid climate of this region, wheat is an important crop; Washington is the third-largest wheat producer in the US, and Idaho is the eighth.
Surrounding the tan wheat fields are the Cascade Mountains (west), the Bitterroot Range (east), and the Blue Mountains (south). Aqua MODIS acquired this true-color image on September 22, 2003.
The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters. Also Washington is the 18th largest state. Therefore with an area of 71,362 square miles (184,827 km2), and the 13th most populous state, with more than 7.4 million people. Approximately 60 percent of Washington’s residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area, the center of transportation, business, and industry along Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean consisting of numerous islands, deep fjords, and bays carved out by glaciers.

Credit: Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC