Fire near Luapula (ZM)

12.23°S, 29.04°E · first detected on 6 October at 13:49

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 6 October at 13:49 to 22 October at 14:10, that is 16 days, through 146 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 2,389 ha.

Detected extent: 2,389 ha
Cumulative power: 1,964 MW
Peak power, one pixel: 123 MW
VIIRS and MODIS detections: 146
Estimated emissions: 8.7 kt of carbon; Carbon burnt in the 0.1 degree cells (about 10 km) around the fire, from 6 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). Published data stop on 21 October 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 19 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 14:10	13 MW	2	N20
22 October at 13:15	3 MW	1	N21
22 October at 09:53	11 MW	1	Met12
22 October at 00:40	1 MW	1	N21
21 October at 17:03	14 MW	1	Met12
21 October at 16:53	21 MW	1	Met12
21 October at 16:43	32 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 16:35	36 MW	1	Met9
21 October at 16:35	40 MW	1	Met10
21 October at 16:33	48 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 16:23	74 MW	3	Met12
21 October at 16:20	121 MW	2	Met10
21 October at 16:20	150 MW	4	Met9
21 October at 16:13	124 MW	4	Met12
21 October at 16:05	166 MW	3	Met10
21 October at 16:05	149 MW	3	Met9
21 October at 16:03	129 MW	4	Met12
21 October at 15:53	244 MW	5	Met12
21 October at 15:50	473 MW	6	Met9
21 October at 15:49	370 MW	3	Met10
21 October at 15:43	135 MW	4	Met12
21 October at 15:40	90 MW	5	Aqua
21 October at 15:35	32 MW	1	Met9
21 October at 15:33	24 MW	1	Met12
21 October at 15:23	23 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 15:20	28 MW	1	Met9
21 October at 14:29	22 MW	1	N20
21 October at 14:23	29 MW	1	Met12
21 October at 14:20	111 MW	2	Met9
21 October at 14:19	81 MW	1	Met10
21 October at 14:13	46 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 10:19	35 MW	1	Met10
20 October at 13:51	20 MW	2	N21
19 October at 14:10	85 MW	6	N21
19 October at 13:25	10 MW	1	N20
19 October at 13:08	3 MW	1	N
19 October at 08:25	22 MW	1	Terra
18 October at 13:47	8 MW	2	N20
18 October at 13:25	10 MW	2	N
18 October at 12:49	19 MW	2	N21
17 October at 14:04	153 MW	12	N20
17 October at 13:45	80 MW	8	N
17 October at 13:08	55 MW	5	N21
17 October at 01:29	2 MW	1	N20
16 October at 14:23	30 MW	4	N20
16 October at 13:25	6 MW	2	N21
16 October at 01:50	3 MW	4	N20
16 October at 01:31	2 MW	3	N
15 October at 14:21	511 MW	21	N
15 October at 13:47	243 MW	14	N21
15 October at 13:02	81 MW	7	N20
15 October at 02:07	1 MW	1	N20
15 October at 01:48	1 MW	1	N
15 October at 01:12	1 MW	1	N21
14 October at 16:10	8 MW	1	Aqua
14 October at 14:42	3 MW	1	N
14 October at 14:04	8 MW	2	N21
14 October at 13:19	4 MW	2	N20
13 October at 13:40	5 MW	1	N20
12 October at 20:58	12 MW	2	Terra
12 October at 13:02	90 MW	11	N21
12 October at 08:44	6 MW	1	Terra
11 October at 14:17	6 MW	2	N20
11 October at 13:57	36 MW	2	N
11 October at 13:19	7 MW	1	N21
10 October at 13:40	39 MW	6	N21
9 October at 14:34	104 MW	9	N
9 October at 13:57	18 MW	1	N21
8 October at 15:40	9 MW	1	Aqua
8 October at 14:17	64 MW	7	N21
8 October at 13:32	103 MW	8	N20
8 October at 13:15	71 MW	4	N
7 October at 13:32	42 MW	3	N
7 October at 12:56	22 MW	4	N21
6 October at 14:10	123 MW	1	N20
6 October at 13:49	3 MW	1	N

8 other fires near Luapula (ZM)

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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