Fire near Zaïre (AO)

6.67°S, 13.86°E · first detected on 6 September at 13:34

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 6 September at 13:34 to 6 September at 16:42, through 75 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 1,041 ha.

Detected extent: 1,041 ha
Cumulative power: 1,512 MW
Peak power, one pixel: 270 MW
VIIRS and MODIS detections: 75

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 19:35	17 MW	1	Met10
6 September at 19:14	11 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 19:05	19 MW	1	Met9
6 September at 19:05	30 MW	2	Met10
6 September at 18:54	21 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 18:50	27 MW	1	Met10
6 September at 18:50	36 MW	1	Met9
6 September at 18:44	12 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 18:35	23 MW	1	Met9
6 September at 18:35	16 MW	1	Met10
6 September at 18:34	11 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 18:24	37 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 18:20	59 MW	3	Met10
6 September at 18:05	42 MW	2	Met10
6 September at 18:04	35 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 17:54	87 MW	4	Met12
6 September at 17:50	114 MW	5	Met10
6 September at 17:44	49 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 17:35	137 MW	5	Met10
6 September at 17:34	59 MW	4	Met12
6 September at 17:24	252 MW	12	Met12
6 September at 17:20	368 MW	9	Met10
6 September at 17:14	148 MW	6	Met12
6 September at 17:05	596 MW	8	Met10
6 September at 17:04	214 MW	7	Met12
6 September at 16:54	76 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 16:50	328 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 16:50	738 MW	8	Met10
6 September at 16:44	429 MW	10	Met12
6 September at 16:42	429 MW	11	Aqua
6 September at 16:35	879 MW	8	Met10
6 September at 16:35	514 MW	3	Met9
6 September at 16:34	369 MW	10	Met12
6 September at 16:24	181 MW	7	Met12
6 September at 16:20	1,300 MW	11	Met10
6 September at 16:20	1,022 MW	4	Met9
6 September at 16:14	390 MW	6	Met12
6 September at 16:04	111 MW	4	Met12
6 September at 15:54	179 MW	5	Met12
6 September at 15:50	157 MW	2	Met10
6 September at 15:44	86 MW	4	Met12
6 September at 15:35	287 MW	2	Met10
6 September at 15:34	395 MW	7	Met12
6 September at 15:24	232 MW	5	Met12
6 September at 15:20	204 MW	1	Met10
6 September at 15:14	79 MW	4	Met12
6 September at 15:14	220 MW	25	N20
6 September at 15:04	298 MW	10	Met12
6 September at 14:55	500 MW	39	N
6 September at 14:54	308 MW	11	Met12
6 September at 14:44	162 MW	4	Met12
6 September at 14:34	29 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 14:24	39 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 14:19	1,002 MW	35	N21
6 September at 14:04	32 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 13:44	80 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 13:34	147 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 13:24	31 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 12:34	71 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 12:24	196 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 12:14	456 MW	7	Met12

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