File:East Africa (MODIS 2015-01-24).jpg

English: Widespread fires speckled the landscape of East Africa on January 18, 2015 when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA�s Terra satellite captured this true-color image.

From Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan, in the north, to Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the south, red hotspots mark areas where the thermal sensors on the instrument detected temperatures higher than background. When combined with smoke and/or typical haze, such hotspots are highly suggestive of widespread fires.

January is the middle of the dry season in this region, and it is also the time when farmers use crops to manage pasture, clear old crops in preparation for planting, and clear new land � often from forests � to be used for agriculture. The widespread nature, time of year and location of these fires strongly suggest that they have been deliberately set, most likely for agricultural purposes.

Not all of the fires in this image are well-managed blazes, however. When winds are high and the region is very dry, managed fires can escape and become wildfires very quickly. In early January, a large bushfire struck a village just west of Moroto, Uganda, which is located near the border with Kenya. Kenya is the country with the fewest fires, and is located in the southwest of the image. The fire in Moroto displaced at least 46 families.