December 1, 2022 - Late Season Fires in Central South America

Fires
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On November 29, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite captured a true-color image of
smoky skies and fires across the landscape of central South America.
The image is centered on Bolivia, where smoke hangs so heavily over the
plains north of the Andes Mountains, that it obscures the land from
view. Another thick patch of smoke sits near the border of Bolivia
(north), Paraguay (east), and Argentina (south). Parts of Chile is also
visible in the southwest. Fire, which appear as red “hot spots” also
are located in Brazil and are partially hidden under cloud.

The thickest smoke plumes amid the heavily forested (green) areas
typically rise from deforestation fires. These are usually lit to
dispose of piles of leftover wood, sometimes several months after
forests have been bulldozed. Forest clearing for ranching and farming
is common in much of central South America. Grassland fires lit by
ranchers and farmers to manage cattle pastures or croplands tend to be
smaller, emit smaller smoke plumes, and appear in brown-tinted
agricultural areas. These human-caused fires sometimes slip control to
become destructive wildfires that burn out of control.

Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) uses MODIS
observations to monitor daily fire activity in the Amazon; INPE
scientists also maintain a record of MODIS fire detections that spans
decades. The agency reported 39,727 Aqua MODIS fire detections in
Bolivia between January 1 and November 30, 2022. This is a 16 percent
rise in fires from the same period in 2021. Brazil has seen a 7 percent
increase in 2022, with 193,810 fires, while Argentina registered 42,413
fire detections in this time period, a rise of 35 percent from 2021.
Paraguay had a 32 percent decrease in fires detected, with 16,042 fires
in 2022.

The southern Amazon region was exceptionally dry during the 2022 dry
season, leading to an intense fire season by September. Usually, the
fire season winds down by October or November, yet MODIS fire
detections show activity continues, although not as fiercely as in
September. In mid-September 2022, NASA’s Earth Observatory published a
story titled “Smoke Blankets the Amazon” that discussed the intensity
of the September fires. That story can be found by clicking here.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 11/29/2022
Resolutions: 1km (1.3 MB), 500m (1.4 MB), 250m (4.5 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-12-01

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