October 14, 2021 - Fires near Lake Chad

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Lake Chad
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Dozens of fires burned in the vegetated areas surrounding Lake Chad in
mid-October 2021. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired at true-color image of
the scene on October 12. Each red “hot spot” marks an area where the
thermal bands on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures. When
combined with typical smoke, such as seen in this image, such hot spots
are diagnostic for actively burning fire. The widespread nature,
location, and time of year suggest these fires are agricultural in
nature.

Located at the intersection of four different countries in the Sahel
region of northern sub-Saharan Africa (Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and
Cameroon), Lake Chad was once one of the African continent’s largest
body of fresh water. An increasingly warm and dry climate, land use
change, and poor water management practices, among other factors, have
led to substantial shrinkage of the lake.

Now a small remnant of its former size, the rapid and dramatic change
in Lake Chad has brought substantial political and environmental
instability the region. The life of the average resident has changed as
well, with most households reporting primary income earned entirely
from farming, with only 5% now relying on fishing. Small farms tend to
practice traditional methods to manage land, including the use of fire
to open new land for crops or pasturage, remove old crops residue from
fields, remove wet-season overgrowth from fields, renew pasture, and
prepare soil for planting. While individual fires are useful tools,
wide-spread fire can negatively impact weather, climate, human and
animal health, and natural resources.

While light gray smoke rises from many of the hot spots and is
undoubtedly responsible for haze hanging over the region, the
atmosphere also carries a veil of camel-colored dust, especially in the
northern section of the image. This is most likely dust from the Bodele
Depression, which is a sand-filled low area north of Lake Chad that
provides the source of frequent dust storms in the area.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 10/12/2021
Resolutions: 1km (28.3 KB), 500m (104 KB), 250m (371.6 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-10-14

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