Fires in South Africa

In September and early November 2002, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra and Aqua satellites captured these true- and false-color images of eastern South Africa. Numerous fires were detected and are marked with red dots. Fires appear to be most heavily concentrated in the Kwazulu-Natal region of South Africa, east of Lesotho (circular country in the southern part of the images) on November 7. On November 8, 2002, the highest concentration of fires has shifted from east of Lesotho to west of Swaziland (circular country near right center edge). The image from Sept. 19 is located to the south of the other images in the series. In many images, the country of Mozambique is visible northeast of South Africa.

In the false-color images, vegetation appears in shades of green, burned areas appear bright reddish-brown, and naturally bare soil appears pinkish-tan.

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Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Published November 13, 2002
Data acquired November 7 - 7, 2002

Source:

Terra > MODIS

Topic:

Human Dimensions > Natural Hazards > Fires

Collections:

MODIS Rapid Response

Visible Earth