Fires and Smoke in Central South America

Large clusters of fires are spread throughout Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay. NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite captured the fires on September 2, 2011 at 18:00 UTC (2:00 p.m. EDT).

In Bolivia last week hundreds of fires were extinguished, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune. The fires in Bolivia have debilitated the country’s airports and reduced the air quality.

Decades of fire suppression have caused the northern Patagonian woodlands, a region between Argentina and Chile, to become denser and more prone to wildfire during hot and dry years.

NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA Goddard. Caption by Melissa Quijada.