Balkan Forest Fires
1 September 2007
While fires in Greece appeared to have quieted down at the end of August 2007, fires continued to burn in Albania and Montenegro. This image of the Balkans was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite on 31 August 2007. Places where the sensor detected actively burning fires are marked in red. Smoke spreads eastward over Serbia. Fire activity has been occurring off and on in the Balkans sinceJuly.
The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of250 meters per pixel.
(source: EarthObservatory)
Albania
The general conditions for forest fires in Albania are still severe.At the moment, the largest fires are burning in the National Parks Lura-Diberand Dajti-In near Tirana, and in the regions of Puke, Kukes, Devoll and Korce.The ground forces of the fire brigades are supported by army, forest personnel,and police. Several fires are burning in remote areas and cannot be accesseddirectly. Albania requested aerial support to fight these fires.
see also
Croatia
see following news report:
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6 firefighters die battling fierce forest fire on Croatian island (published by www.iht.com, 31 August 2007)
Greece
The situation in Greece remains critical. Although most of thebigger blazes are contained, numerous smaller fires continue to burn actively.There is still a high potential for flare ups, especially since a new heat waveand strong winds are expected for the weekend.
The following images show a time series of overpasses collectedby the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite from 23 – 31August.
23 August 2007
AQUA
24 August 2007
AQUA
25 August 2007
AQUA
Made from a combination of visible and infrared light, theseimages of southern Greece show the widespread impact that the recent devastatingfires have had on southern Greece. In this kind of satellite image, vegetationappears bright green and burned areas appear brick red. Numerous large burnscars sprawl along the western part of the Peloponnesus Peninsula. Other partsof the country are dotted with burned areas as well.
26 August 2007
AQUA
27 August 2007
AQUA
31 August 2007
AQUA
See also the latest news reports from the media:
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Greek PM, EC chief to tour wildfire-ravaged regions (published by english.people.com.cn, 1 September 2007)
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Greek Wildfires, Visible From Space, Shatter Records (published by thelede.blogs.nytimes.com, 29 August 2007)
Macedonia(FYROM)
After theon-site fire response coordination and / or assessment missions of GFMC inKosovo (29 July 1 August 2007) and Serbia (19-26 August 2007) the Macedonia/ FYROM mssion (28 August 1 September 2007) was completed today, withgovernment briefing at the Crisis Management Center in Skopje (https://gfmc.online/intro/about4_2007.html#August).
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