February 14, 2023 - Fires in South Sudan and Ethiopia

Fires in South Sudan and Ethiopia
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On February 13, 2023, many dozen fires were burning across Ethiopia and
South Sudan as heavy smoke sprawled over the region. The Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua
satellite acquired a true-color image of the scene on that same day.
Each red “hot spot” marks an area where the thermal bands on the
instrument detected temperatures higher than background. When combined
with typical smoke—as in this image—such hot spots mark actively
burning fires.

While it’s not possible to know, for certain, the cause of a fire via
satellite imagery, the location, time of year, and number of fires
strongly suggest that these are agricultural fires—fires that are
deliberately set to manage lands. Agricultural fire serves a variety of
purposes. It is often used to open new savanna, grassland, or forest
into cropland or pasture. In established fields, fire is an easy tool
used to clear stubble and waste at the end of a growing season and to
return nutrients to the soil. Pastureland is sometimes renewed by
burning, as it clears the field of unwanted weeds and encourages fresh
growth of forage.

While fire is a commonly used tool in traditional agriculture, it can
produce tremendous amounts of smoke that can harm the health of both
human and animals. Fire may also slip out of control to create wildfire
that may damage large areas. Widespread use of fire in “slash-and-burn”
practices is a major factor in deforestation across the Earth.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 2/13/2023
Resolutions: 1km (130.6 KB), 500m (463.7 KB), 250m (1.5 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=2023-02-14

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