GFMC: Bush and Forest Fires in West and Central Africa
Fires in West and Central Africa
15 January 2004
Latest Satellite Images
10:30 UTC (Terra Satellite)
14 January 2004
Bands 721
08:50 UTC (Terra Satellite)
14 January 2004
True color
These images were captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS). They are provided with resolution of 4 km and 500 m respectively.
(Image courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA/GSFC).
As Northern Hemisphere autumn progresses toward winter, fire activity in the Sahel and savannas just
south of Africas Sahara Desert begins to increase. Fires, marked with red dots, are probably due to landclearings.
Earth Probe TOMS Aerosol Index
This image represents absorbing aerosol particles(airborne microscopic dust/smoke) blowing out to sea from West Africa.
Source: NASA-TOMS
For background information on theFire Situation in Africa see:
RegionalWildland Fire Networks (AfriFireNet) and
IFFN Country Reports on various african countries.
An extract of a recent article onthe spread of smoke from wildfires across continents is provided below,
the whole article can be accessed at: Smoke’ssurprising secret
When Sarah Mims discovered that smoke drifting across the Gulf of Mexico from fires in Central America was bringing fungal spores to the air around her home Seguin, Texas, she was definitely surprised. When Mims set out microscope slides and a continuous-operation air filter on a deer stand in her family’s yard, she expected to get a collection of dust samples that she could check for the presence of fungus and bacteria.
As her final piece of evidence, Mims used satellite observations of aerosols from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS), the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), combined with models of the atmosphere from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that showed the back trajectory of the air that was sitting over Texas on the days her samples and the satellite images were capturedin other words, where the air had been before it got to Texas. On the days when her filters were dirtiest and her microscope slides were covered with the most particles, the satellite images showed lots of aerosols over the region, and the back trajectory maps showed the air was coming from North Africa. Putting all these pieces together, says Mims, It was obvious that the dust was Saharan Dust.
