Fires in central Africa

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fires were burning in central Africa when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flew over on the Aqua satellite on July 24, 2004. The fires, which are marked with red dots, are probably agricultural fires, set to clear the land. A light pall of haze hangs over much of the scene, obscuring the view of the ground, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the upper left corner. The eastern edge of Angola is directly below the DRC, and to its right is Zambia. Zimbabwe and Mozambique form the lower right corner of the image. The river running across the lower right corner of the image is the Zambezi River.

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Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Published July 29, 2004
Data acquired July 24, 2004

Source:

Aqua > MODIS

Collection:

Visible Earth