English: In the first months of the year, it is not uncommon for satellites to capture sights such as the one shown in this image: hundreds of active fires burning across the hills and valleys of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. (Fires are also present in southern China and Cambodia, are visible. The satellite detects fires not from visible smoke plumes, but from thermal infra-red energy radiating from the surface. The heat energy is invisible in images like this, but the locations where the satellite detected fires are labelled with red dots.