Cerrado savannas of eastern Brazil
South and east of the Amazon Basin, Brazils cerrado savannas are increasingly being used for agricultural endeavors, and thus are subject to the fires that accompany such activity. The fires, detected in this true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from June 24, 2004, are marked in red, and seem to be concentrated mostly to the east of the Araguaia (left) and Tocantins (center) rivers. The image was acquired by the MODIS flying aboard NASAs Terra satellite. The highland, or “cerrado” region is more sparsely vegetated and has a relatively drier climate than the Amazon Basin and Mato Grosso region, though it stretches over a quarter of continental Brazil and is home to an amazing diversity of fauna.