Australia's fires have lasted for months, burned millions of acres, and belched out a smoke plume that could cover half of Europe.
The photo above – which shows plumes of smoke roughly half the area of Europe darkening skies as far as New Zealand in a yellow haze – was taken on Thursday by the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Himawari-8 satellite.
Himawari-8 overlooks the western hemisphere and photographs this face of Earth once every 10 minutes. Australia, its brushfires, and smoke plumes are easily visible. Foto: An animation shows the Himawari-8 satellite’s view of the eastern Australian brushfires on November 6-11, 2019.sourceRAMMB/CIRA/CSU
Embers from fires that began in September have spread easily in abnormally long, dry, and expansive drought. Foto: An animation shows the Himawari-8 satellite’s view of the eastern Australian brushfires on January 1-2, 2020.sourceRAMMB/CIRA/CSU Foto: A satellite’s view of the eastern Australian brushfires on January 2, 2020.sourceNASA WorldviewThe smoke plume alone is currently about 1.3 billion acres, or half the size of Europe, and is drifting more than 1,000 miles over New Zealand, where it is choking and yellowing the skies.
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