This series of images shows aerosols (particles in the air) over the Amazon each September, the peak of the fire seasons, from 2005 through 2008. The amount of aerosols was unusually high in 2007, and unusually low in 2008.
Published Jun 30, 2009Image of the Day Atmosphere Land Life Human Presence Remote Sensing
In 2005, at the tail end of a multi-year dry spell, the annual dry season in the Amazon south of the equator ballooned into an unrelenting drought. Agricultural fires, now a fixture on the Amazon frontier from August through mid-October, invaded adjacent forests on a large scale. Thick smoke hung over the forest off and on for months.
Published Mar 12, 2008
For many atmospheric scientists, the Amazon Rainforest is a natural cloud laboratory. The vegetation exhales tremendous amounts of water vapor that drapes over the forest as a thick mist. The mist blends with layers of clouds that can reach from the treetops to altitudes of 10 kilometers. When the air over the Amazon is clear, the clouds that form over the forest are so like maritime clouds that scientists have referred to the Amazon as “the Green Ocean.” But increasingly, the air over the Amazon is not clear, at least not during the annual dry season.
Published Mar 11, 2008
Satellites have detected an increase in fire activity early in the 2019 dry season in the southern Amazon.
Published Aug 23, 2019Image of the Day Atmosphere Heat Land Fires Human Presence Remote Sensing
An analysis of geostationary satellite data found a 10 to 15 percent increase in greening around the rainforest during the dry season.
Published Jun 1, 2021
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