Fire near Septentrionale (ZM)

10.98°S, 29.38°E · first detected on 6 September at 10:23

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 6 September at 10:23 to 6 September at 14:19, through 52 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 851 ha.

Detected extent: 851 ha
Cumulative power: 520 MW
Peak power, one pixel: 32 MW
VIIRS and MODIS detections: 52

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 375 m pixel counts in full 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 and loads only its detections. The timeline below covers the whole known life of the fire, from the first trace, satellite or report, to the last announcement from emergency services, and the ticks on the bar mark those announcements. Detections often stop before containment: a fire stops radiating once it stops spreading, which is exactly when it is declared contained. “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. “12 h” stacks twelve hours , as the home map does, where stacking avoids an empty screen between two satellite passes. 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 3 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
6 September at 17:50	14 MW	1	Met9
6 September at 17:33	10 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 17:23	11 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 17:20	42 MW	2	Met10
6 September at 17:20	36 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 17:13	32 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 17:05	105 MW	3	Met10
6 September at 17:05	159 MW	6	Met9
6 September at 17:03	77 MW	5	Met12
6 September at 16:53	102 MW	7	Met12
6 September at 16:50	155 MW	6	Met10
6 September at 16:50	158 MW	7	Met9
6 September at 16:43	154 MW	10	Met12
6 September at 16:35	167 MW	5	Met10
6 September at 16:35	188 MW	7	Met9
6 September at 16:33	84 MW	5	Met12
6 September at 16:23	110 MW	7	Met12
6 September at 16:20	238 MW	7	Met10
6 September at 16:20	247 MW	9	Met9
6 September at 16:13	136 MW	8	Met12
6 September at 16:05	38 MW	1	Met10
6 September at 16:05	108 MW	3	Met9
6 September at 16:03	44 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 15:53	107 MW	6	Met12
6 September at 15:50	64 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 15:43	88 MW	6	Met12
6 September at 15:35	38 MW	1	Met9
6 September at 15:33	81 MW	5	Met12
6 September at 15:23	65 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 15:20	110 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 15:13	81 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 15:03	224 MW	8	Met12
6 September at 14:53	210 MW	6	Met12
6 September at 14:49	632 MW	6	Met9
6 September at 14:49	134 MW	1	Met10
6 September at 14:43	260 MW	6	Met12
6 September at 14:34	207 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 14:33	88 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 14:23	130 MW	5	Met12
6 September at 14:19	106 MW	1	Met9
6 September at 14:19	593 MW	52	N21
6 September at 14:13	67 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 14:03	52 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 13:53	56 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 13:43	286 MW	8	Met12
6 September at 13:33	236 MW	8	Met12
6 September at 13:32	778 MW	86	N20
6 September at 13:23	280 MW	8	Met12
6 September at 13:15	299 MW	26	N
6 September at 13:13	363 MW	11	Met12
6 September at 13:03	269 MW	7	Met12
6 September at 12:53	651 MW	11	Met12
6 September at 12:43	595 MW	13	Met12
6 September at 12:33	313 MW	8	Met12
6 September at 12:23	462 MW	12	Met12
6 September at 12:13	408 MW	11	Met12
6 September at 12:03	484 MW	13	Met12
6 September at 11:53	665 MW	17	Met12
6 September at 11:43	160 MW	6	Met12
6 September at 11:33	165 MW	5	Met12
6 September at 11:23	441 MW	10	Met12
6 September at 11:13	741 MW	17	Met12
6 September at 11:03	381 MW	7	Met12
6 September at 10:43	35 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 10:33	56 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 10:23	25 MW	2	Met12

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