In south-central Africa, season agricultural burning has been a way of life for hundreds, probably thousands of years. People burn grasslands and savannas to encourage new vegetation that attracts grazing animals and to clear or renew land for farming. Though not necessarily hazardous, such large-scale burning can have a strong impact on weather, climate, human health, and natural resources. This image shows fires (marked in yellow) across southern Africa on August 17, 2004. At image right is Lake Tanganyika, which sits at the borders of Tanzania to the east, Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, Zambia to the south, and Burundi to the north. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image.
Image by Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-GSFC
