Fire near Niassa (MZ)

12.21°S, 35.13°E · first detected on 21 October at 09:43

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 21 October at 09:43 to 23 October at 01:18, that is 2 days, through 48 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 1,178 ha.

Detected extent: 1,178 ha
Cumulative power: 399 MW
Peak power, one pixel: 53 MW
VIIRS and MODIS detections: 48
Estimated emissions: 138 t of carbon; Carbon burnt in the 0.1 degree cells (about 10 km) around the fire, from 21 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 4 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
23 October at 08:43	13 MW	1	Met12
23 October at 01:18	2 MW	1	N20
23 October at 00:59	1 MW	1	N
23 October at 00:20	2 MW	2	N21
22 October at 18:05	49 MW	2	Met9
22 October at 17:53	85 MW	5	Met12
22 October at 17:50	136 MW	4	Met9
22 October at 17:50	146 MW	4	Met10
22 October at 17:43	84 MW	5	Met12
22 October at 17:35	294 MW	4	Met9
22 October at 17:35	250 MW	3	Met10
22 October at 17:33	229 MW	5	Met12
22 October at 17:23	109 MW	4	Met12
22 October at 17:20	79 MW	1	Met10
22 October at 17:20	166 MW	4	Met9
22 October at 17:13	223 MW	8	Met12
22 October at 17:05	71 MW	2	Met9
22 October at 17:05	43 MW	1	Met10
22 October at 16:53	63 MW	3	Met12
22 October at 16:50	228 MW	4	Met9
22 October at 16:50	299 MW	4	Met10
22 October at 16:43	313 MW	9	Met12
22 October at 16:35	320 MW	7	Met9
22 October at 16:35	262 MW	5	Met10
22 October at 16:33	128 MW	4	Met12
22 October at 16:23	160 MW	5	Met12
22 October at 16:20	356 MW	7	Met9
22 October at 16:20	357 MW	6	Met10
22 October at 16:13	714 MW	13	Met12
22 October at 16:05	1,062 MW	11	Met9
22 October at 16:04	988 MW	8	Met10
22 October at 16:03	562 MW	10	Met12
22 October at 15:53	393 MW	7	Met12
22 October at 15:50	830 MW	5	Met9
22 October at 15:49	978 MW	6	Met10
22 October at 15:43	936 MW	9	Met12
22 October at 15:35	575 MW	6	Met9
22 October at 15:34	640 MW	5	Met10
22 October at 15:33	406 MW	9	Met12
22 October at 15:23	27 MW	2	Met12
22 October at 15:20	106 MW	2	Met9
22 October at 15:13	11 MW	1	Met12
22 October at 15:03	11 MW	1	Met12
22 October at 14:53	21 MW	2	Met12
22 October at 14:33	10 MW	1	Met12
22 October at 14:13	13 MW	1	Met12
22 October at 14:10	31 MW	5	N20
22 October at 13:53	13 MW	1	Met12
22 October at 13:49	73 MW	13	N
22 October at 13:43	31 MW	2	Met12
22 October at 13:33	12 MW	1	Met12
22 October at 13:15	121 MW	7	N21
22 October at 13:13	28 MW	1	Met12
22 October at 13:04	194 MW	2	Met10
22 October at 13:04	367 MW	4	Met9
22 October at 13:03	225 MW	6	Met12
22 October at 12:53	40 MW	2	Met12
22 October at 12:49	45 MW	1	Met9
22 October at 12:30	53 MW	8	N20
22 October at 12:23	19 MW	1	Met12
22 October at 12:13	84 MW	2	Met12
22 October at 10:53	88 MW	2	Met12
22 October at 10:49	110 MW	1	Met9
22 October at 10:43	308 MW	5	Met12
22 October at 10:34	369 MW	4	Met10
22 October at 10:34	280 MW	3	Met9
22 October at 10:33	178 MW	3	Met12
21 October at 17:43	28 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 16:13	27 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 15:43	17 MW	1	Met12
21 October at 15:40	68 MW	4	Aqua
21 October at 15:35	34 MW	1	Met9
21 October at 15:33	12 MW	1	Met12
21 October at 15:03	43 MW	2	Met12
21 October at 14:10	10 MW	1	N
21 October at 13:32	12 MW	1	N21
21 October at 12:49	24 MW	4	N20
21 October at 09:43	12 MW	1	Met12

8 other fires near Niassa (MZ)

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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