English: Heavy fire activity continued to pour smoke over northern India and Pakistan in early November 2016. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image on November 4.

In early October 2016, Earth-observing satellites began to detect increasing numbers of small fires in Punjab, a top wheat and rice producing region in India. These fires are typical in October and November, when rice crops have been harvested and fields are being prepared for planting wheat. Although the fires are small and short-lived, burning at relatively low temperatures tends to allow the smoke to remain close to the surface. The Himalaya Mountains also act as a barrier, holding smoke in the lower elevations of northern India and Pakistan.

The wheat crop is typically planted by mid- to late-November, and the number of fires in Punjab tends to decrease at the same time. It is likely the fires in this image represent a near-maximum number for this season.