After several years of comparatively quiet fire seasons, Indonesia saw the return of intense, smoky fires in 2023.
After several years of comparatively quiet fire seasons, Indonesia saw the return of intense, smoky fires in 2023. The blazes have been exacerbated by dry conditions made worse this year by the return of El Niño.
This image shows smoke from fires burning on the island of Borneo, in the Indonesian provinces of South and Central Kalimantan. It was acquired by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor on NASA’s Terra satellite on October 2, 2023. By that date, fire had burned around 267,900 hectares (662,000 acres) since the start of the year, surpassing the area burned during all of 2022, according to news reports.
The image below (left) shows burn scars on the landscape near Banjarbaru, the capital city of South Kalimantan, on September 27, 2023. Most of the reds and dark browns are scars from fires that have burned so far during the 2023 fire season. Lighter browns are likely dry vegetation. For comparison, the other image (right) shows the same area on August 7, 2022. Both images are false color and were acquired by the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9.
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