July 15, 2022 - Fires in South Africa and Mozambique
Fires
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Dozens of fires and copious smoke covered portions of southeastern
Africa in mid-July 2022. The Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a
true-color image of the smoky scene on July 14.
The countries captured in this image include Mozambique (north), which
is roughly covered by a shroud of blue-tinted smoke, Eswatini (formerly
Swaziland), northeastern South Africa (south), and Lesotho. Many red
“hot spots”, each indicating fire, are found in Mozambique, but most
are spread across South Africa. Eswatini, a small country that sits on
the border between Mozambique and South Africa, roughly near the
southern edge of the smoke and a break in the mountain ridge, appears
to have only has one or two fires burning near its borders. Lesotho,
which sits southwest of Eswatini and is completely surrounded by South
Africa, has zero fires evident.
While it is not possible to determine the cause of the fires nor if
they are wildfires or deliberately set or managed simply by looking at
a satellite image, given the time of year, location, and widespread
nature of the fires it is likely that most are agricultural fires—fires
that are used to manage cropland or pasture.
Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 7/14/2022
Resolutions: 1km (195.2 KB), 500m (722.6 KB), 250m (2.4 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=2022-07-15
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