Fires in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Widespread agricultural burning is occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was seen by NASA's Aqua satellite.



The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of fires and smoke occurring in the central and western areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on April 21, 2012 at 1215 UTC (8:15 a.m. EDT). The fires are marked by red dots and smoke from the fires appears a light brown in color, while clouds appear in white. Lake Tanganyika is clearly visible in the top right corner of the image.



The U.S. State Department says that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is about 905,063 square miles (2,345 square kilometers) which is about the size of the U.S. east of the Mississippi. It is home to about 9 million people and is bordered by Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia. According to the U.S. State Dept. website, "The terrain is variable and ranges from tropical rainforests to mountainous terraces, plateaus, savannas, dense grasslands, and mountains."



NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard, Rob Gutro