The Burning Amazon

In the image above, agricultural lands in the Amazon basement are seen burning from seasonal fires. The summer of 2019 was marked by an increased global awareness of forest clearing in Brazil, due in part to expanding agricultural interests within the region. Although the Amazon is known to have a dry season in which fires occur naturally, much of the public outcry was from artificial fires created to clear large swaths of land. The satellite image shows some of these artificial fires, alongside some of the untouched Amazon forest. Images such as these, overlaid with other data, help scientists create a detailed and up to date map of seasonal fires in the area.