Fires in Central America

Fires in Central America

16 April 2009

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Haze over the Gulf of Mexico

Fires across the Yucatán Peninsula sent haze northward over the Gulf of Mexico and toward the United States in early April 2009. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on 12 April 2009. This image shows numerous fires—marked by red outlines—blowing smoke toward the northwest. In addition to myriad individual smoke plumes, a large plume blows off the coast and over the ocean.

According to the U.S. Air Quality “Smog Blog,” smoke from the Yucatán fires affected air quality in U.S. coastal cities in southern Florida and Louisiana. On 13 April 2009, haze intensified over the Peninsula and the southern United States.

AQUA
12 April 2009

(source: earth observatory)

The following picture is a composite of hot spots detected until 16 April 2009 by the MODIS sensor on NASA´s Terra and Aqua satellites and is showing wide spread fire activity also throughout large areas in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

(source: www.conabio.gob.mx)

See also following report on fires in Protected Areas of Costa Rica where a total of almost 11 000 hectares of forest and other land have burnt already this year:

• Report on Fires in Protected Areas in Costa Rica (up to 12 April 2009)

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