Fires and Haze in West Africa

Fires and Haze in West Africa

Widespread agricultural burning in Senegal and Mali combined with blowing dust to create hazy skies over West Africa on November 7, 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over head and captured this image. Places where MODIS detected active fires are outlined in red. The lower image shows a close-up of the area between Tambacounda—the largest city in eastern Senegal—and the Senegal-Mali border; fires and smoke were especially concentrated in the area. The smoke to the southeast may be mixed with blowing dust.

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 North Africa in additional resolutions and formats via a clickable map.

NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center