image: A fire began in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana, Africa, when a campfire grew out of control and could not be put out by the campers. This occurred around Sept. 12, 2014. It was still burning on Sept. 15 when extinguishing crews went out to investigate. In this image taken by the Terra satellite on Sept. 18, 2014 a huge swath of land has now been affected. Hot, extremely dry conditions coupled with wind have allowed the fire to grow.
NASA's Aqua satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on Sept. 18, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red.
view moreCredit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC, caption by Lynn Jenner