Fire near Katanga (CD)

8.02°S, 27.02°E · first detected on 23 September at 13:13

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 23 September at 13:13 to 22 October at 14:12, that is 29 days, through 648 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 8,909 ha.

Detected extent: 8,909 ha
Cumulative power: 4,338 MW
Peak power, one pixel: 39 MW
VIIRS and MODIS detections: 648
Estimated emissions: 6.8 kt of carbon; Carbon burnt in the 0.1 degree cells (about 10 km) around the fire, from 5 October 2026 to 22 October 2026. An order-of-magnitude estimate from GFAS (ECMWF, Copernicus CAMS): it also counts neighbouring fires in the same cell. Contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information (2026).

These four figures cover the polar orbits alone, the ones that measure an area. The pass table below also counts geostationary detections, more frequent but too coarse for geometry, and its power column sums a whole pass where the peak above is that of a single pixel.

“Detected extent” is not “burned area”: it is the union of the ground footprints of the satellite pixels, and a pixel counts in full (375 m for VIIRS, 1 km for MODIS) even when only a forest edge is burning. Compared with press figures it is in practice one and a half to three times the area reported. Detections taken at the edge of the scan swath, too coarse to measure anything at all, are excluded. These figures come from thermal detection and are not an official assessment: only the emergency services and the competent authorities are authoritative.

Replay how the fire spread

The map is framed on this fire's footprint and loads only its detections. The timeline below covers the period in which satellites saw it, from the first to the last detection, with twelve hours before and twenty-four after; the ticks on the bar mark the emergency services' announcements that fall within it. The cursor opens on the most powerful pass, and playback replays the whole fire in about thirty seconds. “1 h” shows what is burning within an hour of the chosen moment : the map then follows the power curve below and empties when it falls. “24 h” stacks twenty-four hours : a fire stays visible between two satellite passes, which come two to four times a day. Both are true, but they say different things.

How the radiative power evolved

One point per satellite pass: the sum of the fire radiative power measured over the fire. This is the curve that says whether the fire eased off or picked up again, which no cumulative figure shows. The window covers 30 days; beyond that, clustering would merge two successive fires in the same place.

Fire dynamics

Loading history…

Satellite passes in detail

Pass	Power summed over the pass	Detections	Sensor
22 October at 14:33	10 MW	1	Met12
22 October at 14:12	17 MW	3	N20
22 October at 13:51	27 MW	4	N
22 October at 13:17	48 MW	4	N21
22 October at 10:03	17 MW	1	Met12
22 October at 09:23	16 MW	1	Met12
20 October at 13:51	50 MW	7	N21
20 October at 13:10	63 MW	11	N20
20 October at 13:03	11 MW	1	Met12
19 October at 16:03	13 MW	1	Aqua
19 October at 14:49	8 MW	1	N
19 October at 14:12	136 MW	16	N21
19 October at 13:28	251 MW	38	N20
19 October at 13:08	86 MW	14	N
18 October at 14:29	105 MW	7	N21
18 October at 13:47	261 MW	39	N20
18 October at 13:28	164 MW	20	N
18 October at 12:49	61 MW	4	N21
17 October at 14:06	140 MW	24	N20
17 October at 13:47	86 MW	16	N
17 October at 13:10	57 MW	11	N21
16 October at 13:28	19 MW	3	N21
15 October at 13:47	7 MW	1	N21
14 October at 16:10	18 MW	3	Aqua
14 October at 14:42	32 MW	7	N
14 October at 14:06	191 MW	26	N21
14 October at 13:21	108 MW	20	N20
13 October at 14:23	12 MW	2	N21
13 October at 13:40	10 MW	1	N20
11 October at 15:55	47 MW	4	Aqua
11 October at 14:17	11 MW	2	N20
11 October at 13:57	65 MW	15	N
11 October at 13:21	52 MW	8	N21
10 October at 13:40	60 MW	12	N21
10 October at 12:56	50 MW	4	N20
9 October at 13:15	6 MW	2	N20
7 October at 13:51	51 MW	12	N20
7 October at 13:34	15 MW	2	N
6 October at 16:01	59 MW	5	Aqua
6 October at 14:12	139 MW	21	N20
6 October at 13:51	180 MW	27	N
6 October at 13:17	145 MW	19	N21
5 October at 14:29	45 MW	8	N20
5 October at 14:10	84 MW	14	N
5 October at 13:34	64 MW	13	N21
4 October at 14:29	4 MW	1	N
4 October at 13:51	9 MW	2	N21
3 October at 14:12	22 MW	3	N21
3 October at 13:28	4 MW	2	N20
3 October at 13:08	72 MW	6	N
2 October at 14:29	6 MW	1	N21
2 October at 13:47	11 MW	4	N20
2 October at 13:28	3 MW	1	N
29 September at 14:44	24 MW	3	N20
29 September at 14:23	59 MW	9	N
29 September at 13:47	80 MW	18	N21
29 September at 13:02	9 MW	1	N20
26 September at 13:57	9 MW	4	N20
26 September at 13:40	76 MW	11	N
26 September at 13:02	137 MW	19	N21
25 September at 14:17	84 MW	11	N20
25 September at 13:57	182 MW	21	N
25 September at 13:21	35 MW	7	N21
24 September at 14:36	56 MW	5	N20
24 September at 14:19	94 MW	19	N
24 September at 13:40	176 MW	23	N21
24 September at 12:56	45 MW	4	N20
23 September at 15:59	5 MW	1	Aqua

8 other fires near Katanga (CD)

Separate fires, apart in time or in space, not pieces of this one. A single municipality can have several over one summer, and a forest massif often covers more than a hundred square kilometres.

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