February 2, 2022 - Fires in Argentina and Paraguay

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Heavy smoke from multiple fires rose across parts of South America in
late January 2022. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of
the scene on January 31.

Most of the smoke appears to rise from fires in northeastern Argentina
(located in the southwest portion of the image) and blows northward to
blanket Paraguay. Smoke also rises in Uruguay (southeast). The
landscape overall appears quite dry, washed more in tan and faded green
rather than the lush greens that are typical of the region during
normal times.

Much of Central South America, including Paraguay, Uruguay, and much of
Argentina, has been experiencing long-term drought. According to the
Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS), the drought
began in December 2019 and that “drought indicators suggest anomalies
typical of extreme to severe events”. As the harvest date nears for
soybean and corn, the lack of rain and soaring temperatures—media
reports of highs around 45˚C (113˚F) in parts of Argentina recently—has
severely damaged many crops, slashing estimates of harvest. Along with
reduced harvest comes substantial loss of income for farmers across the
region. In early January, the government of Paraguay announced new
programs to aid the agricultural sector amid crop losses and drought.

The true-color MODIS image above uses visible light (data from bands
1,4,3) to show what the scene would look like if viewed by the human
eye from above the landscape. The MODIS instrument also is equipped
with thermal detectors, which provide a powerful way to detect areas
that are hot compared to background. This feature of the instrument is
often used to easily and detect actively burning fires, either in small
areas or across large swaths of the Earth—both during the day and at
night. When MODIS thermal detectors are used to create an image, the
hot areas (hot spots) are marked in red.

While the true-color, daytime view of the fires burning in Central
South America is interesting, additional information can be gained by
also taking a night-time look at the hot spots across the region.
Thanks to the NASA Worldview App, it’s easy to create such a view from
the data gathered by MODIS. To see the nighttime view, click here .
While it’s not possible to determine the cause of fires from satellite
imagery, the number of fires, location, and time of year suggests they
are agricultural in origin, and have been deliberately set to manage
cropland or pasture.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 1/31/2022
Resolutions: 1km (344.5 KB), 500m (850.1 KB), 250m (490.4
KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



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

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