Fires Across Madagascar

From NASA's Earth Observatory:

Fires Across Madagascar 

On November 11, 2015, dozens of small fires burned across Madagascar. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP captured this natural-color image of the island at 2:00 p.m. local time (11:00 Universal Time) that days. Red boxes indicate locations where the sensor detected active fires. The lower image shows a more detailed view near Tanambe.

The image shows the dramatic change in Madagascar’s landscape from the coast to the island’s highland interior. Light green areas along the coastal plain are a mixture of forest and agricultural land. Dense forests appear deep green. The grassland and savanna ecosystems of the interior high plateau appear in shades of dull green, tan, and reddish-brown.

Most of the fires are scattered across the coastal plain in the east, though there are also large numbers of fires along the western coast. Several of the smokiest fires appear to be burning within or at the edges of densely forested areas. Some of these may be naturally occurring forest fires, but they are more likely intentional land-clearing or accidental human-caused fires.