Fires naturally occur in nature but certain mitigating circumstances can cause the number of forest fires that break out to rise. This year in India the number of forest fires has risen by 55%. This number was reported by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology in India on December 16. Several causes for the rapid spread of these fires include drought, hot weather, and accumulated Chir pine needles which are inflammable due to their high-resin content and as such provide an abundant source of fuel for these wildfires.
Each hot spot, which appears as a red mark, is an area where the thermal detectors on the MODIS instrument recognized temperatures higher than background. When accompanied by plumes of smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for fire.
NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite collected this natural-color image using the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument on December 21, 2016. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner
Suomi NPP is managed by NASA and NOAA.