Hundreds of fires were burning across western Africa on November 30, 2003, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite captured this image. Active fire detections are marked with red dots, and they are spread across a wide region of the Sahel and savannas, reaching all the way to the sea in some places. This is the time of year for agricultural burning in the region.
Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
