File:Fires burning in Central Africa (MODIS 2018-09-03).jpg

English: Hundreds of fires continued to burn across Central Africa in late August, 2018. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of smoke and fire on August 29 as it passed over southern Central Africa.

Each red hot spot marks an area where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected temperatures higher than background. When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots mark actively burning fire. Smoke from the large number of fires has created a heavy pall over much of the region, especially in the west where the smoke is so thick that it is difficult to discern the landscape underneath.

Most of the heaviest smoke hangs over northern Angola. Countries captured in this image which are heavily speckled with fire include: Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, and Tanzania. A large fire burns in Namibia while Botswana and Zimbabwe are nearly fire-free.

While it is typically not possible to discern the cause of a fire through MODIS imagery, the widespread nature of the fires, the location, and the time of year makes it highly likely that these are probably fires that people have set for agricultural purposes. Though not necessarily immediately hazardous, such large-scale burning can have a strong impact on weather, climate, human and animal health, and natural resources.