May 27, 2021 - Fire in the Philippines

Fire

Streams of blue-gray smoke floated over the West Philippine Sea in late May 2021, stretching more than 120 miles (193 km) from the island of Luzon, Philippines where multiple hot-spots marked actively burning fires. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this true-color image of the smoky scene on May 25.

The peak agricultural fire season, in which landowners set fires to manage land or clear forest to put into agricultural use, typically begins in early February and lasts through mid-May. Deforestation is a significant concern in the Philippines as is the impact of smoke to human and animal health across the region. According to Global Forest Watch, using only high-confidence satellite alerts, there have been 286 fire alerts reported so far in 2021. They also state that this total is low compared to the total for previous years going back to 2012. The most fires recorded in a year was 1,927 in 2016.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 5/25/2021
Resolutions: 1km (33.8 KB), 500m (105.9 KB), 250m (312.1 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC