Widely Scattered Fires across North Africa

Widely Scattered Fires across North Africa

On December 24, 2002, more than 5,000 fires (indicated with red dots) were burning across the north central African Sahel and savanna regions. This particular scene, acquired by the MODIS sensor aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite, shows the north central region of Africa spanning parts of the countries of Chad (top center), the Central African Republic (bottom center), and Cameroon (left). The resulting haze and smoke can be seen blowing westward and is particularly thick (gray pixels) toward the bottom left of this scene.

Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, at NASA GSFC