Fire near Zambézie (MZ)

16.72°S, 35.81°E · first detected on 6 September at 00:40

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 6 September at 00:40 to 6 September at 14:59, through 75 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 804 ha.

Detected extent: 804 ha
Cumulative power: 788 MW
Peak power, one pixel: 35 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 22:05	40 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 22:02	22 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 21:50	42 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 21:49	30 MW	1	Met10
6 September at 21:42	48 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 21:35	101 MW	4	Met9
6 September at 21:34	34 MW	1	Met10
6 September at 21:20	65 MW	4	Met9
6 September at 21:19	29 MW	1	Met10
6 September at 21:12	16 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 21:05	131 MW	4	Met9
6 September at 21:04	109 MW	3	Met10
6 September at 21:02	46 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 20:52	37 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 20:50	18 MW	1	Met9
6 September at 20:34	33 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 20:26	35 MW	4	Terra
6 September at 20:19	37 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 20:19	53 MW	2	Met10
6 September at 20:12	27 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 20:04	83 MW	4	Met9
6 September at 20:04	27 MW	1	Met10
6 September at 20:02	13 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 19:52	50 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 19:49	90 MW	4	Met9
6 September at 19:49	89 MW	3	Met10
6 September at 19:42	21 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 19:34	41 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 19:34	34 MW	1	Met10
6 September at 19:32	27 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 19:22	25 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 19:19	135 MW	4	Met9
6 September at 19:19	90 MW	2	Met10
6 September at 19:12	53 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 19:04	86 MW	4	Met9
6 September at 19:04	70 MW	2	Met10
6 September at 18:52	62 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 18:49	96 MW	2	Met10
6 September at 18:49	171 MW	6	Met9
6 September at 18:34	18 MW	1	Met9
6 September at 18:22	38 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 18:19	114 MW	6	Met9
6 September at 18:19	64 MW	2	Met10
6 September at 18:04	38 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 16:34	26 MW	1	Met9
6 September at 16:33	11 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 16:23	12 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 16:19	26 MW	1	Met9
6 September at 16:04	107 MW	4	Met9
6 September at 16:03	10 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 15:53	25 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 15:49	65 MW	2	Met9
6 September at 15:43	14 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 15:13	20 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 15:03	44 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 14:59	113 MW	3	Aqua
6 September at 14:53	43 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 14:33	15 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 14:23	18 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 14:03	31 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 13:33	28 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 13:30	204 MW	18	N20
6 September at 13:23	106 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 13:13	278 MW	24	N
6 September at 13:13	73 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 12:53	11 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 12:43	76 MW	3	Met12
6 September at 12:34	149 MW	13	N21
6 September at 12:33	16 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 12:23	63 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 11:53	13 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 11:33	49 MW	2	Met12
6 September at 10:53	10 MW	1	Met12
6 September at 00:59	4 MW	4	N20
6 September at 00:40	3 MW	2	N

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