Images
September 9, 2024 - Thick Smoke Shrouds South America
Tweet
A thick gray blanket of smoke covered the skies over much of South American in early September 2024, the result of intense fires burning throughout August and early September. In Brazil and Bolivia, fire activity reached levels not seen since 2010, spurred by a prolonged drought that parched landscapes in both countries.
On September 3, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of the appallingly dense smoke over that nearly completely obscured the terrain of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil east of the Andes. In contrast, an extensive layer of marine stratocumulus clouds covers the South Pacific Ocean and the coastal shoreline west of the mountains. Lake Titicaca, bordering Peru and Bolivia, and the large, bright salt flat known as Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, sit atop the Andes.
The fire season in the southern Amazon, which generally ramps up in August and peaks in September and October, has been intense this year. According to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), a component of the European Union’s space program, emissions from fires have been exceptionally high in Bolivia and the Brazilian states of Amazonas and Mato Grosso do Sul.
CAMS estimates near-real-time wildfire emissions using its Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS), which aggregates observations made by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensors on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. Compared to the previous 21 years, these areas have registered their highest year-to-date total emissions, at 44, 22, and 13 million metric tons of carbon, respectively.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 9/3/2024
Resolutions:
1km (641.9 KB), 500m (1.5 MB), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
A thick gray blanket of smoke covered the skies over much of South American in early September 2024, the result of intense fires burning throughout August and early September. In Brazil and Bolivia, fire activity reached levels not seen since 2010, spurred by a prolonged drought that parched landscapes in both countries.
On September 3, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of the appallingly dense smoke over that nearly completely obscured the terrain of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil east of the Andes. In contrast, an extensive layer of marine stratocumulus clouds covers the South Pacific Ocean and the coastal shoreline west of the mountains. Lake Titicaca, bordering Peru and Bolivia, and the large, bright salt flat known as Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, sit atop the Andes.
The fire season in the southern Amazon, which generally ramps up in August and peaks in September and October, has been intense this year. According to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), a component of the European Union’s space program, emissions from fires have been exceptionally high in Bolivia and the Brazilian states of Amazonas and Mato Grosso do Sul.
CAMS estimates near-real-time wildfire emissions using its Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS), which aggregates observations made by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensors on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. Compared to the previous 21 years, these areas have registered their highest year-to-date total emissions, at 44, 22, and 13 million metric tons of carbon, respectively.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 9/3/2024
Resolutions:
1km (641.9 KB), 500m (1.5 MB), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
