Fire near Katavi (TZ)

5.79°S, 31.90°E · first detected on 4 October at 12:49

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 4 October at 12:49 to 18 October at 15:27, that is 14 days, through 617 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 10,080 ha.

Detected extent: 10,080 ha
Cumulative power: 5,275 MW
Peak power, one pixel: 107 MW
VIIRS and MODIS detections: 617
Estimated emissions: 17.8 kt of carbon; Carbon burnt in the 0.1 degree cells (about 10 km) around the fire, from 5 October 2026 to 18 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 17 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
18 October at 15:27	12 MW	1	Aqua
18 October at 13:49	6 MW	1	N20
17 October at 13:47	52 MW	8	N
17 October at 13:10	16 MW	2	N21
17 October at 01:29	3 MW	4	N20
17 October at 01:07	1 MW	1	N
17 October at 00:31	1 MW	1	N21
16 October at 01:48	2 MW	3	N20
16 October at 01:29	4 MW	3	N
16 October at 00:50	1 MW	2	N21
15 October at 14:23	9 MW	1	N
15 October at 13:49	4 MW	1	N21
15 October at 13:04	36 MW	5	N20
15 October at 01:09	6 MW	4	N21
14 October at 14:06	14 MW	2	N21
14 October at 13:21	13 MW	3	N20
14 October at 13:02	40 MW	4	N
14 October at 08:22	4 MW	1	Terra
14 October at 02:05	9 MW	7	N
14 October at 01:29	5 MW	4	N21
14 October at 00:44	2 MW	2	N20
13 October at 15:31	29 MW	2	Aqua
13 October at 13:40	243 MW	18	N20
12 October at 13:04	249 MW	15	N21
12 October at 08:42	35 MW	1	Terra
12 October at 01:22	21 MW	23	N20
12 October at 01:01	11 MW	9	N
12 October at 00:27	11 MW	3	N21
11 October at 20:19	31 MW	3	Terra
11 October at 15:55	152 MW	8	Aqua
11 October at 14:17	76 MW	6	N20
11 October at 13:57	734 MW	55	N
11 October at 13:21	319 MW	42	N21
11 October at 12:38	20 MW	2	N20
11 October at 01:39	30 MW	10	N20
11 October at 01:22	24 MW	15	N
10 October at 13:40	25 MW	4	N21
10 October at 12:56	154 MW	10	N20
10 October at 02:01	2 MW	2	N20
10 October at 01:03	9 MW	3	N21
9 October at 14:00	31 MW	2	N21
9 October at 12:56	7 MW	1	N
9 October at 08:25	19 MW	2	Terra
9 October at 01:22	2 MW	3	N21
8 October at 13:34	95 MW	18	N20
8 October at 13:15	94 MW	12	N
8 October at 12:38	58 MW	4	N21
8 October at 01:39	2 MW	2	N21
8 October at 00:57	4 MW	4	N20
7 October at 13:53	10 MW	2	N20
7 October at 13:34	73 MW	13	N
7 October at 12:58	60 MW	8	N21
7 October at 01:16	3 MW	3	N20
6 October at 16:01	51 MW	2	Aqua
6 October at 14:12	7 MW	1	N20
6 October at 13:51	302 MW	21	N
6 October at 13:17	160 MW	16	N21
6 October at 08:05	15 MW	1	Terra
6 October at 01:33	6 MW	7	N20
6 October at 01:14	9 MW	7	N
6 October at 00:37	3 MW	5	N21
5 October at 15:23	73 MW	4	Aqua
5 October at 14:12	212 MW	26	N
5 October at 13:34	202 MW	18	N21
5 October at 12:49	99 MW	20	N20
5 October at 01:54	4 MW	5	N20
5 October at 01:33	8 MW	8	N
5 October at 00:58	16 MW	9	N21
4 October at 20:43	15 MW	2	Terra
4 October at 13:53	222 MW	37	N21
4 October at 13:10	620 MW	41	N20
4 October at 12:49	358 MW	19	N
3 October at 02:11	8 MW	4	N

8 other fires near Katavi (TZ)

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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