English: On February 13, 2024, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a true-color image of dozens of fires burning across parts of Western Africa.

Each red “hot spot” marks an area where the thermal bands on the instrument detected elevated temperatures. When combined typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for active fire. The heaviest clusters of fires are located in Cameroon, which is also the country with the largest amount of green vegetation present. From east to west, fires are also present in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. Gray smoke covers the coast and pours over the Gulf of Guinea.

The widespread nature of the fires, the location, and the time of year (dry season) indicate that these are probably fires that people have set for agricultural purposes. Agricultural fires are deliberately set to manage cropland or pastures, or to open new fields for use. The peak of agricultural burning in Western Africa’s Sahel region typically begins in January and last approximately 12 weeks.