Fires in Central Africa

Fires in Central Africa

In central Africa the annual fire season was underway in mid-June 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead and captured this image. Hundreds of agricultural fires were scattered across the savannas of Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, and Tanzania; their locations are marked with red dots. Although it is not necessarily immediately hazardous, such large-scale burning can have a strong impact on weather, climate, human health, and natural resources.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.