Biomass Burning in Central and Southern Africa

More than 10,000 active fire detections mark this MODIS image from July 11, 2003, of Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia.

Hundreds of fires were detected burning throughout Angola (bottom) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (top) in this true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image acquired on June 28, 2003, by the Aqua satellite. All of the fires are marked in bright red. Some of the fires have visible smoke plumes that are contributing to the gray-blue haze over the upper right portion of the image. In the higher resolutions of this image, smoke plumes from the smaller fires can also be seen.

The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Aqua/MODIS
  • Start Date

    2003-06-28
  • Event Start Date

    2003-05-06
  • NH Image ID

    10763
  • NH Event ID

    9126
  • NH Posting Date

    2003-07-02