February 17, 2022 - Fires across the Southeastern United States
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Dozens of fires were scattered over the Southeastern United States on
February 15, 2022, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a
true-color image of the region. Each red “hot spot” marks an area where
the thermal sensors on the MODIS instrument detected high temperatures.
When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots mark
actively burning fire. The blazes are scattered across Alabama (west),
Georgia (east), and Florida.
The widespread nature, location, and time of year suggests that most of
these fires are likely prescribed burns—fires that are deliberately set
to manage public lands, such as forests or grassland. Such controlled
burns are carefully planned to benefit the environment and wildlife,
and also helps reduce the impact of wildfires by reducing fuel ahead of
wildfire season. Winter’s weather, with cooler temperatures, is prime
time for prescribed burns in this region. In late January, the U.S.
Forest Service announced that, in Alabama, approximately 120,000 acres
in four national forests in that state were slated for prescribed fires
before the end of winter. Similar land management is occurring in
Georgia and Florida as well. It is also possible that some of these
fires are agricultural in nature. Agricultural fires are similar to
prescribed burns in that they are deliberately set to manage land, but
they are typically set by farmers to freshen pasture or work cropland.
According to reports from the National Interagency Fire Center from
February 11, only one wildfire was burning in this region on that date.
That fire was near Elgin Air Force Base, had been contained, and
affected about 460 acres. Elgin sits close to the coast on the Florida
Panhandle.
Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 2/15/2022
Resolutions: 1km (75.1 KB), 500m (262.9 KB), 250m (794.2
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=2022-02-17
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