Images & Animations
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Credit
Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
Biomass burning along the border between Bolivia (left) and Brazil (top and right) has been intense and widespread for more than two months. This true-color image acquired on September 13, 2004, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite, shows a large number of fires (red dots) that are still producing a thick pall of smoke that obscures the landscape over much of central South America.
Such large-scale burning in the Amazon Rainforest is not a natural occurrence. Unlike the pine and fir-dominated forests of the western United States, the forest is not well adapted to fire. As people use slash-and-burn deforestation to create new farmland, the impacts are felt far beyond the location of the fire. The smoke inhibits cloud formation and rainfall, and causes the rain that does fall to come down in heavier outbursts. Fires escape control and invade managed timber plantations, undisturbed forest, and permanent agriculture.
Metadata
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Sensor
Terra/MODIS -
Visualization Date
2004-09-13
