December 9, 2022 - Fires and Smoke in Western Africa

Fire and Smoke
Tweet
Share

Hundreds of fires were burning across Western Africa in early December
2022. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on
board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-colored image of clouds,
smoke, and fire across several countries lying on the coast of Guinea
on December 7.

Each red “hot spot” marks an area where the thermal bands on the MODIS
instrument detected high temperatures typical of actively burning fire.
The largest cluster of fires lie in Ghana, a country slightly smaller
than the size of the U.S. state of Oregon. Fire also can be seen in
Cote d'Ivoire, to the west of Ghana, as well as Togo and Benin, two
countries to the east of Ghana. Further west, few fires are visible in
Nigeria. few fires are also seen in Burkina Faso, in the northwest or
Niger, located in the northeast. A smokey haze covers the landscape
over the visible hot spots and northward, while clouds likely obscure
many hot spots from view.

While it is not possible to discern the cause of a fire from satellite
imagery, the time of year, location, and number of the fires strongly
suggest that these fires are agricultural in origin. Most farmers in
Ghana and nearby countries have small holding and still use traditional
practices, such as fire, to manage land. Fires are used to clear
stubble from old crops, to renew pasture, to open new land for cropping
or pasture, or to prepare for planting.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 12/7/2022
Resolutions: 1km (361.8 KB), 500m (1.2 MB), 250m (4 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-12-09

--- up 40 weeks, 4 days, 21 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)