Fire near Limpopo (ZA)

23.53°S, 29.04°E · first detected on 18 October at 12:45

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 18 October at 12:45 to 21 October at 14:25, that is 3 days, through 197 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 2,755 ha.

Detected extent: 2,755 ha
Cumulative power: 2,012 MW
Peak power, one pixel: 148 MW
VIIRS and MODIS detections: 197
Estimated emissions: 4.6 kt of carbon; Carbon burnt in the 0.1 degree cells (about 10 km) around the fire, from 18 October 2026 to 21 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 6 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 13:33	64 MW	1	Met9
21 October at 14:33	88 MW	1	Met10
21 October at 14:33	198 MW	3	Met9
21 October at 14:32	85 MW	3	Met12
21 October at 14:25	73 MW	9	N20
21 October at 14:22	21 MW	1	Met12
21 October at 14:18	34 MW	1	Met9
21 October at 14:12	44 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 14:06	137 MW	9	N
21 October at 14:03	119 MW	2	Met9
21 October at 14:03	113 MW	1	Met10
21 October at 14:02	85 MW	3	Met12
21 October at 13:52	45 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 13:42	13 MW	1	Met12
21 October at 13:30	84 MW	13	N21
21 October at 13:22	42 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 13:18	46 MW	1	Met9
21 October at 13:12	37 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 13:02	36 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 12:52	39 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 12:48	39 MW	1	Met9
21 October at 12:42	13 MW	1	Met12
21 October at 12:22	59 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 12:12	88 MW	4	Met12
21 October at 11:52	25 MW	1	Met12
21 October at 11:48	53 MW	1	Met9
21 October at 11:42	18 MW	1	Met12
21 October at 11:33	58 MW	1	Met9
21 October at 11:32	102 MW	4	Met12
21 October at 11:22	36 MW	2	Met12
20 October at 14:46	3 MW	1	N20
20 October at 14:25	46 MW	6	N
20 October at 13:47	9 MW	2	N21
20 October at 13:04	31 MW	5	N20
20 October at 12:02	28 MW	1	Met12
20 October at 11:48	59 MW	1	Met10
20 October at 11:48	42 MW	1	Met9
20 October at 11:02	17 MW	1	Met12
20 October at 08:22	36 MW	2	Met12
20 October at 08:12	44 MW	2	Met12
20 October at 08:02	59 MW	3	Met12
20 October at 07:52	14 MW	1	Met12
20 October at 02:18	7 MW	4	N20
20 October at 01:58	10 MW	5	N
20 October at 01:20	3 MW	1	N21
20 October at 00:37	4 MW	2	N20
19 October at 14:08	153 MW	15	N21
19 October at 13:23	105 MW	12	N20
19 October at 13:04	308 MW	32	N
19 October at 08:27	12 MW	2	Terra
19 October at 02:16	38 MW	11	N
19 October at 01:39	39 MW	12	N21
19 October at 00:57	40 MW	18	N20
19 October at 00:35	22 MW	9	N
18 October at 15:23	170 MW	2	Aqua
18 October at 14:25	156 MW	11	N21
18 October at 13:42	273 MW	10	N20
18 October at 13:21	271 MW	5	N
18 October at 12:45	18 MW	1	N21

8 other fires near Limpopo (ZA)

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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