Smoke in Southern Africa

This SeaWiFS true-color image acquired over Southern Africa on Sept. 4, 2000, shows a thick shroud of smoke and haze blanketing much of the southern half of the continent. The smoke in this scene is being generated by a tremendous number of fires burning over a large area across the countries of Angola, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and the Northern Province of South Africa. In this image, the smoke (grey pixels) is easily distinguished from clouds (bright white pixels).

This image was produced using SeaWiFS channels 6, 5, and 1 (centered at 670 nm, 555 nm, and 412 nm, respectively). The data were acquired and provided by the Satellite Applications Center in Pretoria, South Africa. This composite of data from two SeaWiFS orbits exhibits transmission errors in the form of colorful speckles around Madagascar.

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Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE

Published September 4, 2000
Data acquired September 4, 2000

Source:

OrbView-2 > SeaWiFS

Topic:

Atmosphere > Aerosols > Dust/Ash