Fire hot spots on GOES, MODIS, and AVHRR imagery
GOES 3.9 µm, MODIS 3.7 µm, and POES AVHRR 3.8 µm shortwave IR images
AWIPS images of the 4-km resolution GOES-12 3.9 µm, the 1-km resolution MODIS 3.7 µm, and the 1-km resolution POES AVHRR 3.8 µm shortwave IR images (above; click image to enlarge) showed that there were a large number of fire “hot spots” (red to yellow colors) across parts of Kansas and Oklahoma on 08 April 2010. The majority of these fires appeared to be in the Flint Hills region — likely the annual prescribed burns that cattle farmers perform in order to remove thatch and weeds that compete with the native grasses, to improve the range land grasses for livestock grazing.
===== 09 April Update =====
On the following day, MODIS true color imagery (below, viewed using Google Earth) showed that the ongoing fire activity was beginning to create extensive areas of smoke aloft from northern Oklahoma to eastern Kansas. There were also some large and very dense smoke plumes seen farther to the east, over portions of Arkansas and Missouri.
MODIS true color imagery (visualized using Google Earth)