Fire near Kinshasa (CD)

4.87°S, 15.74°E · first detected on 8 September at 13:42

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 8 September at 13:42 to 20 September at 14:57, that is 12 days, through 142 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 2,628 ha.

Detected extent: 2,628 ha
Cumulative power: 1,741 MW
Peak power, one pixel: 126 MW
VIIRS and MODIS detections: 142

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 15 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
21 September at 14:38	1,178 MW	136	N21
21 September at 13:53	350 MW	59	N20
21 September at 09:46	28 MW	3	Terra
21 September at 02:56	3 MW	2	N20
21 September at 02:35	4 MW	3	N
21 September at 02:01	8 MW	7	N21
20 September at 21:25	16 MW	2	Terra
20 September at 15:33	64 MW	8	N
20 September at 14:57	42 MW	7	N21
20 September at 14:12	56 MW	8	N20
20 September at 13:53	14 MW	2	N
20 September at 09:09	24 MW	2	Terra
20 September at 02:20	2 MW	2	N21
19 September at 16:44	601 MW	28	Aqua
19 September at 15:16	10 MW	1	N21
19 September at 14:32	258 MW	35	N20
19 September at 14:12	150 MW	14	N
19 September at 13:36	304 MW	10	N21
19 September at 01:54	3 MW	2	N20
18 September at 16:08	116 MW	3	Aqua
18 September at 14:49	840 MW	65	N20
18 September at 14:32	667 MW	65	N
18 September at 13:53	204 MW	23	N21
17 September at 17:07	730 MW	23	Aqua
17 September at 15:10	2,060 MW	53	N20
17 September at 14:51	552 MW	56	N
17 September at 14:14	161 MW	24	N21
16 September at 15:08	23 MW	3	N
16 September at 14:32	21 MW	4	N21
15 September at 21:28	5 MW	1	Terra
15 September at 15:27	538 MW	44	N
15 September at 14:51	1,103 MW	99	N21
15 September at 14:06	579 MW	89	N20
15 September at 13:47	105 MW	13	N
15 September at 03:07	3 MW	2	N20
15 September at 02:50	4 MW	3	N
15 September at 02:12	7 MW	3	N21
14 September at 16:52	1,053 MW	39	Aqua
14 September at 15:10	931 MW	66	N21
14 September at 14:25	1,070 MW	146	N20
14 September at 14:06	676 MW	82	N
14 September at 02:33	7 MW	1	N21
14 September at 01:46	1 MW	2	N20
13 September at 21:47	43 MW	4	Terra
13 September at 16:14	301 MW	9	Aqua
13 September at 14:44	665 MW	83	N20
13 September at 14:23	984 MW	66	N
13 September at 13:47	428 MW	38	N21
13 September at 03:26	15 MW	5	N
13 September at 02:50	55 MW	14	N21
13 September at 02:05	21 MW	18	N20
13 September at 01:46	24 MW	6	N
12 September at 21:08	251 MW	5	Terra
12 September at 17:14	1,473 MW	23	Aqua
12 September at 15:01	614 MW	57	N20
12 September at 14:44	861 MW	134	N
12 September at 14:08	567 MW	64	N21
12 September at 02:24	0 MW	1	N20
12 September at 02:05	3 MW	3	N
12 September at 01:29	1 MW	1	N21
11 September at 16:35	224 MW	10	Aqua
11 September at 14:25	43 MW	8	N21
11 September at 02:43	8 MW	4	N20
11 September at 02:24	1 MW	2	N
11 September at 01:48	3 MW	3	N21
10 September at 15:22	126 MW	22	N
10 September at 14:44	680 MW	63	N21
10 September at 14:00	258 MW	39	N20
9 September at 16:57	153 MW	8	Aqua
9 September at 15:04	106 MW	18	N21
9 September at 14:17	50 MW	7	N20
9 September at 14:00	75 MW	9	N
8 September at 21:49	14 MW	3	Terra
8 September at 16:20	207 MW	10	Aqua
8 September at 15:23	35 MW	4	N21
8 September at 14:38	760 MW	104	N20
8 September at 14:17	390 MW	59	N
8 September at 13:42	187 MW	21	N21
8 September at 09:31	11 MW	2	Terra
8 September at 02:43	8 MW	4	N21
7 September at 21:10	136 MW	2	Terra
7 September at 14:55	968 MW	142	N20
7 September at 14:38	1,126 MW	200	N
7 September at 14:00	556 MW	61	N21
7 September at 03:05	3 MW	1	N21
7 September at 02:18	5 MW	6	N20
7 September at 01:58	3 MW	4	N
6 September at 16:42	63 MW	7	Aqua
6 September at 15:16	174 MW	28	N20

6 other fires near Kinshasa (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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