Fires in North America and Europe tend to generate headlines and media attention. In reality, fires in these areas of Earth make up a small fraction of all fire activity.
This animated map from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Scientific Visualization Studio shows fires in a global context. It uses data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard satellites orbiting Earth.
This map shows observed fires from April 9, 2022, through April 8, 2024. Detected fires flicker in orange and yellow on the dark basemap, making it easy to spot clusters.
Fires in Africa, South America, and Asia dominate the map. Many of these are agricultural burns. Farmers intentionally burn fields and orchards to remove residual vegetation after harvests and pruning. It’s a common practice and has been observed around the globe, from Russia to West Africa.
There’s a seasonality to these fires, too. Agricultural fires are more common in winter months. In Africa, the southern part of the continent burns from May to November. From November to May, most of the fire activity occurs in the northern and central parts of Africa.
You can see evidence of other fire activity in this map as well. Wildfires are evident, from Canada’s historic 2023 wildfire season to fires in Cuba. And you can see continued slash-and-burn activities across the Amazon rainforest in South America.
Fires can have ecological benefits and naturally occur on Earth. But many of the fires in this map are a direct result of human activity. As climate change creates more favorable conditions for fires, governments will need to better regulate deliberate burns.
