Fire near Sud-Kivu (CD)

4.61°S, 28.97°E

What the satellites measured

This fire is not in the last thirty days of the fire list, but detections remain around this point: the curve below is rebuilt from the raw pixels, which are kept for a hundred days.

“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 30 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
19 October at 13:28	94 MW	8	N20
19 October at 13:10	25 MW	4	N
16 October at 15:48	111 MW	6	Aqua
16 October at 14:25	82 MW	8	N20
16 October at 14:06	108 MW	15	N
16 October at 13:28	217 MW	19	N21
15 October at 01:46	3 MW	1	N
15 October at 01:09	2 MW	1	N21
14 October at 16:12	16 MW	1	Aqua
14 October at 14:06	153 MW	21	N21
14 October at 13:21	403 MW	41	N20
14 October at 13:02	156 MW	17	N
14 October at 02:03	3 MW	2	N
14 October at 01:29	21 MW	8	N21
14 October at 00:44	29 MW	8	N20
13 October at 15:33	142 MW	5	Aqua
13 October at 14:25	123 MW	13	N21
13 October at 13:42	452 MW	60	N20
12 October at 13:04	258 MW	27	N21
11 October at 14:19	76 MW	8	N20
11 October at 14:00	333 MW	29	N
11 October at 13:21	220 MW	23	N21
9 October at 14:38	14 MW	2	N
9 October at 14:00	65 MW	10	N21
9 October at 13:15	85 MW	15	N20
9 October at 12:56	45 MW	6	N
7 October at 12:58	3 MW	1	N21
6 October at 16:01	441 MW	5	Aqua
6 October at 14:12	278 MW	59	N20
6 October at 13:51	568 MW	83	N
6 October at 13:17	543 MW	68	N21
6 October at 02:18	8 MW	3	N21
6 October at 01:33	17 MW	7	N20
5 October at 15:23	243 MW	6	Aqua
5 October at 14:32	123 MW	15	N20
5 October at 14:12	551 MW	60	N
5 October at 13:35	765 MW	66	N21
5 October at 12:50	362 MW	36	N20
5 October at 01:52	1 MW	1	N20
5 October at 01:33	2 MW	2	N
5 October at 00:57	7 MW	1	N21
4 October at 13:53	93 MW	10	N21
4 October at 13:10	177 MW	15	N20
4 October at 12:49	79 MW	4	N
3 October at 15:46	61 MW	6	Aqua
3 October at 14:14	8 MW	1	N21
3 October at 13:28	52 MW	8	N20
3 October at 01:33	1 MW	1	N21
3 October at 00:50	2 MW	2	N20
2 October at 15:08	38 MW	1	Aqua
2 October at 13:49	304 MW	45	N20
2 October at 13:28	311 MW	35	N
2 October at 12:51	83 MW	12	N21
2 October at 01:09	1 MW	1	N20
1 October at 16:10	56 MW	3	Aqua
1 October at 14:06	17 MW	2	N20
1 October at 13:47	200 MW	7	N
1 October at 13:10	187 MW	11	N21
30 September at 14:06	76 MW	12	N
30 September at 13:28	299 MW	37	N21
30 September at 12:43	56 MW	4	N20
30 September at 01:29	1 MW	1	N
30 September at 00:50	8 MW	4	N21
29 September at 20:43	65 MW	5	Terra
29 September at 14:23	265 MW	36	N
29 September at 13:48	543 MW	52	N21
29 September at 13:04	313 MW	55	N20
29 September at 02:07	1 MW	1	N20
29 September at 01:46	4 MW	5	N
29 September at 01:09	4 MW	3	N21
28 September at 15:55	395 MW	24	Aqua
28 September at 14:06	699 MW	80	N21
28 September at 13:21	893 MW	68	N20
27 September at 13:41	148 MW	15	N20
27 September at 13:21	152 MW	10	N
27 September at 12:44	25 MW	4	N21
26 September at 20:24	236 MW	3	Terra
26 September at 14:00	147 MW	23	N20
26 September at 13:40	190 MW	18	N
26 September at 13:04	449 MW	21	N21
25 September at 14:17	145 MW	16	N20
25 September at 14:00	470 MW	50	N
25 September at 13:21	430 MW	36	N21
25 September at 01:20	5 MW	2	N
25 September at 00:44	2 MW	1	N21
24 September at 14:17	332 MW	34	N
24 September at 13:42	697 MW	24	N21
24 September at 12:58	152 MW	17	N20
23 September at 15:59	12 MW	1	Aqua
23 September at 13:15	34 MW	5	N20
23 September at 12:56	17 MW	2	N

8 other fires near Sud-Kivu (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.

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