Fires in Central Africa
Fires in Central Africa
31 May 2007
In Africa south of the equator, fires are ubiquitous during the annual dry season. The exact length and timing of the dry season vary in different locations, but it generally falls between May and October. During that time, people use fire to clear brush and crop stubble, to control the growth of undesirable plants in crop or grazing areas, and to drive grazing animals from one pasture area toanother.
AQUA
30 May 2007
This image shows early dry-season burning across a large swath of central Africa south of the equator on28 May 2007. The image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite, and shows places the sensor detected active fires marked with reddots. Hundreds of fires dot the tropical savannas (ecosystems dominated by grasses and scattered trees andshrubs) of Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia.
Although these fires are not necessarily immediately hazardous, such large-scale burning can have a strong impact onweather, climate, human health, and natural resources. For example, the fires create large amounts of ozone and other airpollutants, and the too-frequent use of fire combined with other pressures such as overgrazing may degrade the soil and prevent some plant species fromregenerating.
The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of250 meters per pixel.
(source: EarthObservatory)
