Agricultural Fires in West Africa

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Sunday, 20 January 2008, 08:37 CST Download full size image

In the grasslands and savannas of West Africa, the agricultural burning season takes place in Northern Hemisphere winter. Fires are widespread at this time, as people burn crop stubble, brush, and old pasture grasses.

This image shows hundreds of fires (red dots) detected by the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite when it captured this image on January 10, 2008. Although it is not necessarily immediately hazardous, such large-scale burning can have a strong impact on weather, climate, human health, and natural resources.

More Images

Mars
Ice Cold Sunrise on Mars.From the location of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, above the Martian arctic circle, the sun does no...

---

Universe
XMM-Newton’s Massive Discovery.The optical image that confirmed that 2XMM J083026+524133 is a distant cluster of galaxies, taken by...

---