Fire near Unité (SS)

9.71°N, 30.46°E · first detected on 11 October at 13:25

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 11 October at 13:25 to 22 October at 14:17, that is 11 days, through 158 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 1,927 ha.

Detected extent
1,927 ha
Cumulative power
1,612 MW
Peak power, one pixel
96 MW
VIIRS and MODIS detections
158
Estimated emissions
3.3 kt of carbon
Carbon burnt in the 0.1 degree cells (about 10 km) around the fire, from 11 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 14 days; beyond that, clustering would merge two successive fires in the same place.

Fire dynamics

Loading history…

Satellite passes in detail

PassPower summed over the passDetectionsSensor
22 October at 16:2230 MW1Met9
22 October at 16:0732 MW1Met9
22 October at 15:3514 MW1Met12
22 October at 15:0765 MW2Met9
22 October at 15:0511 MW1Met12
22 October at 14:5290 MW2Met9
22 October at 14:37102 MW2Met9
22 October at 14:2511 MW1Met12
22 October at 14:1732 MW3N20
22 October at 13:5798 MW10N
22 October at 13:5511 MW1Met12
22 October at 13:22106 MW2Met9
22 October at 13:1991 MW11N21
22 October at 13:0769 MW1Met9
22 October at 13:0545 MW1Met12
22 October at 12:367 MW1N20
22 October at 10:3736 MW1Met9
21 October at 16:0732 MW1Met9
21 October at 16:0512 MW1Met12
21 October at 15:5526 MW2Met12
21 October at 15:5243 MW1Met9
21 October at 15:4631 MW2Aqua
21 October at 15:4514 MW1Met12
21 October at 15:3785 MW2Met9
21 October at 15:3513 MW1Met12
21 October at 14:2530 MW2Met12
21 October at 14:1754 MW7N
21 October at 14:1545 MW3Met12
21 October at 14:0532 MW2Met12
21 October at 13:5516 MW1Met12
21 October at 13:4552 MW3Met12
21 October at 13:3891 MW13N21
21 October at 13:3550 MW2Met12
21 October at 13:2544 MW2Met12
21 October at 13:22102 MW1Met9
21 October at 13:1580 MW4Met12
21 October at 13:07135 MW2Met9
21 October at 13:0588 MW4Met12
21 October at 12:56182 MW8N20
21 October at 12:55145 MW2Met12
21 October at 12:52270 MW3Met9
21 October at 12:4587 MW3Met12
21 October at 12:37218 MW3Met9
21 October at 12:36106 MW5N
21 October at 12:35129 MW4Met12
21 October at 12:2582 MW2Met12
21 October at 12:22188 MW2Met9
21 October at 12:15103 MW2Met12
21 October at 12:07187 MW2Met9
21 October at 12:05189 MW4Met12
21 October at 11:55243 MW5Met12
21 October at 11:52386 MW4Met9
21 October at 11:4563 MW2Met12
21 October at 11:37140 MW2Met9
21 October at 11:3544 MW2Met12
21 October at 11:2567 MW2Met12
21 October at 11:2292 MW1Met9
21 October at 11:1569 MW2Met12
21 October at 11:07149 MW2Met9
21 October at 11:0565 MW2Met12
21 October at 10:55134 MW3Met12
21 October at 10:52150 MW2Met9
21 October at 10:4548 MW2Met12
21 October at 10:37115 MW2Met9
21 October at 10:3558 MW2Met12
21 October at 10:2536 MW2Met12
21 October at 10:2289 MW2Met9
20 October at 13:5714 MW2N21
20 October at 13:2255 MW1Met9
20 October at 13:1522 MW4N20
20 October at 13:0754 MW1Met9
20 October at 12:537 MW2N
20 October at 12:5259 MW1Met9
20 October at 12:3759 MW1Met9
20 October at 12:2275 MW1Met9
20 October at 11:5264 MW1Met9
20 October at 11:0767 MW1Met9
20 October at 10:5263 MW1Met9
20 October at 10:3760 MW1Met9
20 October at 10:2258 MW1Met9
20 October at 10:0756 MW1Met9
19 October at 13:3285 MW13N20
19 October at 13:1396 MW11N
19 October at 12:3669 MW7N21
17 October at 13:497 MW1N
17 October at 13:1317 MW2N21
17 October at 08:3713 MW1Terra
17 October at 02:0737 MW6N21
15 October at 15:1422 MW1Aqua
15 October at 13:5131 MW4N21
15 October at 13:0826 MW2N20
14 October at 13:25199 MW7N20
14 October at 13:065 MW1N
14 October at 12:3034 MW3N21
13 October at 20:047 MW1Terra
11 October at 14:0427 MW3N
11 October at 13:2519 MW2N21

8 other fires near Unité (SS)

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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