Fire near Kongo central (CD)

4.62°S, 15.47°E · first detected on 6 September at 15:16

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 6 September at 15:16 to 19 September at 14:32, that is 13 days, through 33 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 1,174 ha.

Detected extent: 1,174 ha
Cumulative power: 427 MW
Peak power, one pixel: 52 MW
VIIRS and MODIS detections: 33

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
20 September at 14:12	56 MW	8	N20
20 September at 13:53	14 MW	2	N
20 September at 02:20	1 MW	1	N21
19 September at 16:44	569 MW	26	Aqua
19 September at 15:16	10 MW	1	N21
19 September at 14:32	152 MW	20	N20
19 September at 14:12	100 MW	9	N
19 September at 13:36	55 MW	5	N21
19 September at 01:54	1 MW	1	N20
18 September at 16:08	116 MW	3	Aqua
18 September at 14:49	352 MW	42	N20
18 September at 14:32	357 MW	52	N
18 September at 13:53	88 MW	12	N21
17 September at 17:07	595 MW	18	Aqua
17 September at 15:10	574 MW	25	N20
17 September at 14:51	333 MW	27	N
17 September at 14:14	41 MW	7	N21
16 September at 16:29	64 MW	2	Aqua
16 September at 15:08	14 MW	2	N
15 September at 21:28	5 MW	1	Terra
15 September at 15:27	321 MW	26	N
15 September at 14:51	531 MW	62	N21
15 September at 14:06	407 MW	61	N20
15 September at 13:47	49 MW	7	N
15 September at 02:11	2 MW	1	N21
14 September at 16:52	920 MW	31	Aqua
14 September at 15:10	590 MW	39	N21
14 September at 14:25	867 MW	118	N20
14 September at 14:06	603 MW	69	N
14 September at 02:33	1 MW	1	N21
14 September at 01:46	1 MW	1	N20
13 September at 21:47	38 MW	3	Terra
13 September at 16:14	220 MW	7	Aqua
13 September at 14:44	287 MW	46	N20
13 September at 14:23	445 MW	28	N
13 September at 13:47	251 MW	20	N21
13 September at 03:26	15 MW	5	N
13 September at 02:50	55 MW	14	N21
13 September at 02:05	19 MW	16	N20
13 September at 01:46	24 MW	6	N
12 September at 21:08	251 MW	5	Terra
12 September at 17:14	1,218 MW	15	Aqua
12 September at 15:01	388 MW	36	N20
12 September at 14:44	518 MW	75	N
12 September at 14:08	286 MW	36	N21
11 September at 16:35	211 MW	8	Aqua
11 September at 14:25	5 MW	2	N21
11 September at 02:43	1 MW	2	N20
11 September at 02:24	1 MW	2	N
10 September at 15:23	63 MW	10	N
10 September at 14:44	430 MW	42	N21
10 September at 14:00	177 MW	27	N20
9 September at 16:57	73 MW	5	Aqua
9 September at 15:04	15 MW	4	N21
9 September at 14:17	17 MW	1	N20
8 September at 21:49	14 MW	3	Terra
8 September at 16:20	122 MW	5	Aqua
8 September at 15:23	13 MW	1	N21
8 September at 14:38	528 MW	69	N20
8 September at 14:17	279 MW	46	N
8 September at 13:42	124 MW	14	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	653 MW	92	N20
7 September at 14:38	694 MW	126	N
7 September at 14:00	265 MW	36	N21
7 September at 02:18	4 MW	5	N20
7 September at 01:58	3 MW	4	N
6 September at 16:42	63 MW	7	Aqua
6 September at 15:16	82 MW	13	N20
6 September at 14:55	342 MW	40	N
6 September at 14:19	256 MW	32	N21
6 September at 02:37	2 MW	1	N20
6 September at 02:18	2 MW	1	N
6 September at 01:41	6 MW	4	N21

8 other fires near Kongo central (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.

Follow live

The map shows active fires in 3D, with smoke plumes, forecast wind, drop zones and the live position of water bombers tracked by ADS-B, anywhere in the world.

Open the fire map

Take the data of this fire with you

A ready-to-use archive, paid once, no subscription. It contains:

the satellite detections of the fire
the contours of its progression
the drops and the aircraft tracks
the lightning around it
the severity of the burned area, when computed

From €20.00 excl. VAT, six formats to choose from, link valid for 30 days.

Download the data

Pro subscribers: included. €49 excl. VAT a month, no commitment. The public map stays free. Discover GISFire Pro

© 2026 SARO · Gistin. All rights reserved. The interface, its presentation and the contents of GISFire are protected; reproducing or imitating them requires written permission. The source data remain the property of their respective producers, see the credits.

Legal notice · Privacy policy · · GISFire v2.4.2