July 7, 2023 - Agricultural Fire in Africa

Fires in Africa
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Many hundreds of fires dotted central Africa in early June 2023. The
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua
satellite acquired a true-color image spanning the continent from Lake
Tanganyika to the Pacific Ocean. Each red “hot spot” marks an area of
actively burning fire, and they are abundant in Zambia (east),
Democratic Republic of Congo (north and central), and Angola (west).

The widespread nature of the fires, their location, and the time of
year all suggest that people are intentionally setting most of these
fires for agricultural purposes. People in Africa have used fire for
hundreds, possibly thousands, of years as an agricultural and land
management tool. In the dry season, they set fires to clear brush and
dead vegetation from farm and grazing land and to deal with household
trash. The dry season in central Africa spans roughly May through
September, with fire season peaking in July through August.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 7/5/2023
Resolutions: 1km (596.2 KB), 500m (1.8 MB), 250m (5.4 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-07-07

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