Hundreds of fires are burning across Indonesia

Hundreds of fires are burning across Indonesia Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory shows thick smoke lingering over wildfires across Indonesia.

Although most of the fires were set deliberately to clear land for farming, the dry conditions this year are exceptionally dangerous for human health and the environment.

The regions of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, and Sumatra are covered in a blanket of smoke that is moving across parts of Southeast Asia.

According to news reports, many schools have closed and several airports have canceled or delayed flights in recent weeks.

This image was captured on September 15, 2019 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

The sovereign state is a presidential, constitutional republic with an elected legislature. It has 34 provinces, of which five have special status. The country’s capital, Jakarta, is the second-most populous urban area in the world. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and the eastern part of Malaysia. Other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support one of the world’s highest levels of biodiversity.

The Indonesian archipelago has been a valuable region for trade since at least the 7th century when Srivijaya and later Majapahit traded with entities from mainland China and the Indian subcontinent. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign influences from the early centuries and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory