Fires in West Africa

Fires in West Africa

19 March 2009

Agricultural and other land-management or trash-burning fires are widespread across West Africa in the dry season. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on 17 March 2009, shows scores of fires (locations marked in red) burning in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Although agricultural burning such as this is not necessarily immediately hazardous, it can have a major impact on air quality and human health, climate, and natural resources.

AQUA
17 March 2009

The large image provided above is at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel.

(source: earth observatory)