AVHRR 10-day fire averages from the Space Applications Institute, Joint Research Center of the European Commission

AVHRR 10-day fire averages from the Space Applications Institute, Joint Research Center of the European Commission

AVHRR 10-day fire averages from the Space Applications Institute, Joint Research Center of the European Commission

AVHRR 10-day fire averages from the Space Applications Institute, Joint Research Center of the European Commission

AVHRR 10-day fire averages from the Space Applications Institute, Joint Research Center of the European Commission

AVHRR 10-day fire averages from the Space Applications Institute, Joint Research Center of the European Commission

AVHRR 10-day fire averages from the Space Applications Institute, Joint Research Center of the European Commission

AVHRR 10-day fire averages from the Space Applications Institute, Joint Research Center of the European Commission

This flyover occurred on August 20, 2000. The aircrafts altitude was an at 64250 ft while acquiring the image. The flight direction on the image if from top to bottom. The aircraft heading was approximately 6.5 degrees.

This animation shows fire activity in Africa from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2002. The fires are shown as tiny particles with each particle depicting the geographic region in which fire was detected. The color of a particle represents the number of days since a sizable amount of fire was detected in that region, with red representing less than 20 days, orange representing 20 to 40 days, yellow representing 40 to 60 days, and gray to black representing more than 60 days. This data was measured by the MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite. MODIS detects fires by measuring the brightness temperature of a region in several frequency bands and looking for hot spots where this temperature is greater than the surrounding region.

This animation shows a unique picture of seasonal and yearly fire activity. Here, global fire activity is displayed as tiny particles on a flat map with each particle depicting the site at which a fire was detected. Daily fires are displayed at a rate of 10 days per second. The fire particles fade over 1.7 seconds and change color as they age from red to orange, yellow and grey. A clock inset shows the date.

Aerosol index over South America from August 1, 1987 through September 30, 1987 as measured by the Nimbus-7 Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS)

Aerosol index over Africa from July 2, 1986 through September 7, 1986 as measured by the Nimbus-7 Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS)

Hundreds of forest fires continue to burn across the boreal forests of Russia, releasing thick clouds of smoke that are spreading as far south as South Korea and central China.

Images from NASAs Terra and Aqua satellites have become a regular part of the National Inter-agency Fire Centers firefighting toolkit. The images help the center track fires on a daily basis and are used in allocating precious firefighting resources.

Zooming down to New South Wales, Australia to view smoke.

Biomass burning is the burning of living and dead vegetation. It includes the human-initiated burning of vegetation for land clearing and land-use change as well as natural, lightning-induced fires. Scientists estimate that humans are responsible for about 90% of biomass burning with only a small percentage of natural fires contributing to the total amount of vegetation burned. Burning vegetation releases large amounts of particulates (solid carbon combustion particles) and gases, including greenhouse gases that help warm the Earth. Studies suggest that biomass burning has increased on a global scale over the last 100 years, and computer calculations indicate that a hotter Earth resulting from global warming will lead to more frequent and larger fires. Biomass burning particulates impact climate and can also affect human health when they are inhaled, causing respiratory problems. Here are three images of South America on October 7, 2004. The first image is shows clouds and fires on that day. The second image is clouds and Nitrous Dioxide (NO2) concentrations in the stratosphere. The last image overlays the fires on the NO2 data.

This animation sequences through the MODIS imagery of the devastating Californian fires from October 23, 2003 through October 29, 2003. Then the animation resets to October 23, 2003 and zooms out to see the TOMS aerosol sequence. It clearly shows that the California fires had an impact on air quality as far east as Maine.

This visualization shows the Southern California Fires.