Fires in Angola and Democratic Republic of the Congo

June 3, 2010

Fires continued burning throughout Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in early June 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on June 3, 2010. Red dots are hotspots associated with unusually high surface temperatures characteristic of fires. Agricultural burning is a common practice in this region, and many of these fires have probably been set intentionally to manage crop or pasture land.

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Michon Scott.