SAO PAULO • Smoke from bush fires raging across Australia has reached Brazil, an arm of the National Institute for Space Research said on Twitter.

Referring to satellite images, the agency's Department of Remote Sensing said the smoke had arrived in Brazil's southern-most state, Rio Grande do Sul.

Private meteorological company MetSul also tweeted about the arrival of a smoke cloud over Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, but emphasised that "the presence of smoke from Australia in the air is almost imperceptible, despite the satellite showing smoke in the atmosphere over the great Porto Alegre".

Chile's meteorological service said on Monday that smoke from the Australian fires was visible in Chile and Argentina.

That means the hazy cloud of smoke, sitting at about 6,000m in the air, has travelled more than 12,000km to reach South America. But it will not negatively affect the health of the continent's inhabitants, according to the Chilean weather service.

The smoke might have also reached the Antarctic, the UN World Meteorological Organisation said. The fires have already emitted 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and produced harmful pollutants, said the European Union's Copernicus monitoring programme.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS