The Fire Continent
-
- Written by:
- Kayvon Sharghi
-
- Scientific consulting by:
- Chris Justice,
- Louis Giglio, and
- Luigi Boschetti
- View full credits
More fires burn in Africa each year than any other place on Earth. Collectively, these fires account for 70 percent of the total area burned by fire around the world. Humans set the majority of fires in Africa, burning land for farming and pastoral grazing. The practice is widespread and accepted by Africa's fire management community. Fire clears excess vegetation, creates new areas for cultivation and returns nutrients to the soils. Lightning fires, though not entirely uncommon, contribute much less to the total burning across the African landscape. At the beginning of the wet season, dry vegetation can readily ignite when struck by lightning. Such spontaneous ignitions can lead to wildfires that burn for days. The visualization below shows nearly a decade of fire observations throughout Africa collected by NASA satellites from July 2002 through July 2011. Watch how as the seasons shift from wet to dry, waves of fire sweep across the continent from the semi-arid grasslands and savannas just below the Sahara Desert in the north, to the equatorial forests in central Africa and lush landscapes of the south.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Acacia tree photo courtesy of Jurgen Altziebler
-
Animators
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)
-
Writer
- Kayvon Sharghi (USRA) [Lead]
-
Scientists
- Chris Justice (University of Maryland) [Lead]
- Louis Giglio (University of Maryland) [Lead]
- Luigi Boschetti (University Of Maryland College Park) [Lead]
-
Producer
- Kayvon Sharghi (USRA)
Related pages
-
-
ID: 3870 Visualization
African Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI
Read moreFrom space, we can understand fires in ways that are impossible from the ground. The MODIS instrument onboard the Terra and Aqua satellite, was specifically designed to detect fires. As a result, it can see both smaller fires and a wide range of fires from cool grass fires to raging forest fires. Burning carbon particles both on the tiny soot particles in the flame and on the fuel itself emit a very specific wavelength of light, 3.8 to 4 microns. NASA research has contributed to much improved detection of fire for scientific purposes using satellite remote sensing and geographic information systems. This has helped advance our understanding of the impacts of fire in many areas of earth science, including atmospheric chemistry and the impacts on protected areas. This research has led to the development of a rapid response system widely used throughout the world for both natural resource management and for firefighting by providing near real-time information. The visualization shows fires detected in Africa from July 2002 through July 2011. Africa has more abundant burning than any other continent. MODIS observations have shown that some 70 percent of the world's fires occur in Africa alone. "It's incredibly satisfying to see such a long record of fires visualized," said Chris Justice, a scientist from the University of Maryland who leads NASA's effort to use MODIS data to study the world's fires. "It's not only exciting visually, but what you see here is a very good representation of the data scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to determine where and how fires are responding to climate change and population growth."More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management (FIRMS) is available at http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/. ||
-