Biomass Burning over South America

  • Credit

    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Biomass Burning over South America

Biomass burning is the burning of living and dead vegetation. It includes the human-initiated burning of vegetation for land clearing and land-use change as well as natural, lightning-induced fires. Scientists estimate that humans are responsible for about 90% of biomass burning with only a small percentage of natural fires contributing to the total amount of vegetation burned. Burning vegetation releases large amounts of particulates (solid carbon combustion particles) and gases, including greenhouse gases that help warm the Earth. Studies suggest that biomass burning has increased on a global scale over the last 100 years, and computer calculations indicate that a hotter Earth resulting from global warming will lead to more frequent and larger fires. Biomass burning particulates impact climate and can also affect human health when they are inhaled, causing respiratory problems. Here are three images of South America on October 7, 2004. The first image is shows clouds and fires on that day. The second image is clouds and Nitrous Dioxide (NO2) concentations in the stratosphere. The last image overlays the fires on the NO2 data.

Fires and NO2 concentration measured from Space on October 7, 2004

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Aura/OMI

  • Animation ID

    3075

  • Video ID

    NONE

  • Start Timecode

    00:00:00:00

  • End Timecode

    00:00:00:00

  • Animator

    Lori Perkins, Greg Shirah

  • Studio

    SVS

  • Visualization Date

    2004/12/09

  • Scientist

    Ernest Hilsenrath (NASA/GSFC), Mark Schoeberl (NASA/GSFC), Pepijn Veefkind (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute KNMI)

  • Datasets

    MODIS Fire Pixels

  • Keywords

    fires, biomass, burning,stratosphere

  • DLESE Subject

    atmospheric science

  • Data Date

    2004/10/07

  • Pao ID

    G04-064

  • Animation Type

    Stills