This week’s guided exercise will look at the process of monitoring fires, thermal anomalies and aerosols.

For this exercise we will use the World View tool from NASA.

Follow the steps below and then join the discussion to compare results and discuss ideas with other learners. Once you feel confident with the tool you can explore other locations and data sets of your choice.

You may find it helpful to open the exercise in a separate window.

Exercise 1

1. You can link to a specific dataset on World View for this exercise here. This is a ‘Fires and Thermal Anomalies (Day and Night) Terra/MODIS’ data set for the 18th September 2014.

2. Notice that the red dots represent the location of fires across East Africa on this date. Associated with the red dots, you can also see small plumes of smoke.

3. Use the time slider at the bottom of the page to click forward to 19th September 2014. Here you will see a dramatic increase in fires.

4. Next you will need to add another layer to the ‘Overlays’ menu. Click on the ‘Add Layers’ plus symbol and then click on ‘All’. Scroll down until you find the layer called ‘Aerosol Optical Depth’, click on it and select ‘Aqua/MODIS Aerosol Optical Depth’ and ‘Terra/MODIS Aerosol Optical Depth ‘. You can now see that these layer that have now been added to ‘Overlays’.

5. Use the time slider to go between the 18th and 19th September 2014 and zoom in and out to see the dramatic increase in fires and how it affects the whole of southern Africa.

Once you’ve explored this tool and tried the exercise share your thoughts and findings in the discussion below.

Exercise 2

1. You can link to a specific dataset on World View for this exercise here. This is a ‘Fires and Thermal Anomalies (Day and Night) Terra/MODIS’ data set for the 13th June 2013.

2. Notice that the red dots represent the location of fires across China on this date. Associated with the red dots you can also see small plumes of smoke.

3. Use the time slider at the bottom of the page to click forward to the 21st June 2013, here you will see an increase in the number of fires and smoke plumes.

4. Next click on the ‘Add Layer’ button and then click on ‘All’. Scroll down until you find the layer called ‘Aerosol Optical Depth’, click on it and select ‘Aqua/MODIS Aerosol Optical Depth’ and ‘Terra/MODIS Aerosol Optical Depth ‘. You can now see that these layer that have now been added to ‘Overlays’.

5. Zoom out to see the region more clearly. Then go back to 13th June and click through to the 21st June again to see how increases in aerosols in that area corresponds to the fires.