NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of the Caazapá district of Paraguay on February 28, 2019. Actively burning fires, detected by thermal bands from Aqua’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument, are shown as red points.
Global Forest Fire Watch is an online platform for monitoring and responding to forest and land fires using near real-time information. Fire alerts provided by the Global Forest Fire Watch website in Caazapá, Paraguay for March 1, 2018 were at zero. Fire alerts for February 28, 2019 for the same area by the same organization, and just one year apart are 76. Fire alerts for the current day are not available, but it is remarkable that for basically the same day the fire alerts are significantly higher. It is not feasible to determine why since so many variables factor into why fires break out, but it is startling to see such a difference from one year to the next.
NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview application provides the capability to interactively browse over 700 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. Many of the available imagery layers are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks “right now.” Image Courtesy: NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Caption: Lynn Jenner with information Global Forest Fire Watch