February 15, 2022 - Burn Scars around Corrientes, Argentina

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Burn scars
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Scorching summer temperatures, high winds, and dry vegetation have
combined to turn parts of South America into a tinderbox. As of January
15, 2022, fires were burning across in nine of Argentina’s 23
provinces, with 100 firefighters and support staff fighting one
exceptional blaze burning in the Nahuel Huapi National Park in
Argentina’s Patagonia region.

By February 14, another extreme set of blazes was ravaging forests in
the Corrientes Province, located in northern Argentina near the Parana
River. Those fires had consumed more than 500,000 hectares—roughly 6
percent of the land in the province. On that date, the Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra
satellite acquired a false-color image of the fire-raved region of
Corrientes.

This type of false-color image uses infrared and visible light (MODIS
bands 7,2,1), which helps highlight vegetation and burned areas.
Vegetation appears bright green, open land appears brown or tan, and
water appears blue, with shallow water lighter than the inky-blue of
deeper water. Smoke rising from the fires appears bright blue. Burn
scars—areas that have been burnt by fire—may vary in color, typically
appearing brick red when the land has been recently burned and
appearing lighter red or tan in older burnt areas as vegetative growth
begins to fill back in. In extreme fires, the burn scar may appear
black. This image shows a many, many fresh burn scars in the vegetation
to the east of the Parana River.

While this one image gives an accurate and impressive look at the
damage the fires have caused, more useful information can often be
gained by comparing more than one image taken at different times.
Thanks to the NASA Worldview App, such comparisons are easy. To see a
comparison between a Terra MODIS image taken on January 13,prior to the
start of the fires, and the image acquired on February 14, click
here.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 2/14/2022
Resolutions: 1km (334.1 KB), 500m (849.6 KB), 250m (483.3
KB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-02-15

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