Satellite before and after

Black Summer bushfires: Kangaroo Island, Australia, 2019–20

During Australia's Black Summer, bushfires burned across Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia, and destroyed a large share of its native bushland.

Kangaroo Island, South Australia · Late December 2019 to January 2020 · Wildfire · Australia

Compare the imagery

Drag the divider, or focus it and use the arrow keys. Left of the divider is 14 Dec 2019, right is 21 Jan 2020, 38 days apart.

The interactive comparison needs JavaScript. Both images are shown below.

In this false-colour view water is dark blue to black, vegetation is bright green, bare ground is tan, freshly burned land is red-brown and cloud is cyan.

The two images

Satellite image of Kangaroo Island, South Australia on 14 Dec 2019, before the event, in false colour (MODIS bands 7-2-1).
Before: Aqua, 14 Dec 2019 · Open in NASA Worldview · original from GIBS
Satellite image of Kangaroo Island, South Australia on 21 Jan 2020, after the event, in false colour (MODIS bands 7-2-1).
After: Aqua, 21 Jan 2020 · Open in NASA Worldview · original from GIBS

What the images show

On 14 December the western part of the island is dark green bushland. On 21 January most of it is red-brown: freshly burned land. The eastern farmland, paler before the fires, is largely unchanged.

About the event

  • NASA Earth Observatory, citing news reports on 9 January 2020, said at least 156,000 hectares — nearly one-third of the island — had burned and 50 homes had been destroyed.

Limits of this comparison

Both images are from the same satellite and layer. Some cloud edges the south of the island on 14 December. Red-brown in this layer means burned ground, and it cannot show how severely it burned.

Each image is one satellite pass at about 250 metres a pixel. It shows where water or burned land is visible from space on that day; it does not measure damage, and cloud or haze can hide what is underneath.

Dates were chosen by checking the imagery on both satellites for several days either side and keeping the clearest pass. Both use the same layer, MODIS Corrected Reflectance, bands 7-2-1.

Sources

We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Comparison slider: leaflet-side-by-side (MIT licence). Case last updated 12 Sep 2026.

Questions

What does the satellite image of Kangaroo Island, South Australia show?

On 14 December the western part of the island is dark green bushland. On 21 January most of it is red-brown: freshly burned land. The eastern farmland, paler before the fires, is largely unchanged.

When were the two satellite images taken?

The before-image was taken by Aqua, 14 Dec 2019 and the after-image by Aqua, 21 Jan 2020, 38 days apart.

What can this before-and-after comparison not show?

Both images are from the same satellite and layer. Some cloud edges the south of the island on 14 December. Red-brown in this layer means burned ground, and it cannot show how severely it burned. Each image is one satellite pass at about 250 metres a pixel. It shows where water or burned land is visible from space on that day; it does not measure damage, and cloud or haze can hide what is underneath.

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