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Northern Africa Fire Season: Natural Hazards

The agricultural fire season was underway in northern Africa in late November 2006. Each year around this time, farmers and people who raise livestock set fires across the region to clear dead vegetation and return its nutrients to the soil, preparing farmland for the next season's crops and preparing grazing lands for new growth of pasture grasses. This photo-like image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer modis.gsfc.nasa.gov (MODIS) on NASA's aqua.nasa.gov Aqua satellite on November 27 shows scores of active fires (marked in red) burning across several countries of north-ce…