August 8, 2022 - Fire and Burn Scars near Lake Upemba

Umpemba
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The Upemba Depression sits in Katanga Province of southern Democratic
Republic of Congo. In this low-lying land, the Lualaba River widens to
create many marshy lakes in the midst of scrubby savannah. There are
about fifty lakes, most of them small, in the Upemba Depression. The
largest of these is Lake Upemba, with a surface area measuring about
200 square miles (500 square kilometers).

On August 5, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a false-colored image
centered on Lake Upemba. This type of image combines infrared and
visible light to help highlight features such as water and burn scars.
Here, vegetation appears bright green, open land is colored in a
variety of tans, while water looks deep blue or black. The color of
burn scars—areas recently charred by fire—varies from bright brick-red
or brown in fresh scars, depending on soil color and fire
characteristics. Older burn scars fade as vegetation grows into the
previously-charred area.

The dark water of Lake Upemba contrasts sharply with the floating
islands of papyrus and other dense wetland vegetation typical of lakes
in the Depression. Other small lakes are dotted over the landscape,
especially to the west and southwest of Lake Upemba.

The wet savannah, west of Lake Upemba, is covered with burn scars as
well as actively burning fires. Deep brick-red and brown burn scars are
so dense and dark that, in some areas, it is difficult to discern where
burnt grassland separates from small black lakes. Several actively
burning fires, marked by red hot spots, and gray smoke are also
scattered over this region. While it is not possible to discern why
fires are burning from just a satellite image, given the location and
time of year, most of these fires and burn scars are likely from fires
that have been deliberately set for agricultural purposes—such as
preparing soils for planting, clearing stubble from old fields, opening
new areas for cropping, or renewing pastures.

The Upemba Depression has been home to humans since at least 700 A.D.,
providing fish, wild meat, and rich soils for agriculture. Human needs,
including pressure from poaching, fishing, farming, and pasture,
increasingly impacts the local wildlands, and the more than 1,800
species that live in the region. In 1939, the Democratic Republic of
Congo set aside about 1.7 million hectares of land, including Lake
Upemba and land to the south and east of it, as one of the country’s
first National Parks. It is an extremely diverse and important
ecosystem and has been recognized as and Important Bird and
Biodiversity Area (IBA) by Birdlife International. Agriculture
continues outside of the park, as the burn scars clearly show.
Unfortunately, many burn scars—including one very large burn scar east
of the lake—and at least 2 active fires can be seen within the borders
of Upemba National Park.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 8/5/2022
Resolutions: 1km (246.2 KB), 500m (643.8 KB), 250m (352.3
KB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-08-08

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