Fires burning in the Atlas Mountains on the northern coast of Algeria turned deadly in late August 2007. Several people were killed by forest fires that were driven rapidly across the landscape by sirocco winds (hot dry winds that blow from Africa’s interior deserts toward the Mediterranean). According to news reports, thousands of soldiers were deployed to help battle the fires. Cooler weather and firefighting efforts brought many fires under control by August 31.
This image shows fires (red outlines) detected around the city of Skikda by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on August 30, 2007. Smoke creates a thick haze over the Mediterranean Sea.
The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily images of the western and eastern Algerian coastline in additional resolutions.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
