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STS41D-040-0022 Fires and Smoke,
Rondônia, Brazil September 1984
Space Shuttle astronauts sometimes
photograph major smoke palls (primarily in the equatorial belt) where
"slash-and-burn" techniques are used to clear land for agricultural
purposes—for raising crops or for developing pastureland for cattle. This
photograph documents numerous smoke plumes, which represent destruction of part
of the Amazon rain forest in the State of Rondônia in western Brazil.
During the last several decades, worldwide slash-and-burn practices have been
exacerbated by population pressures to expand into virgin
tropical woodland. Peak burning periods occur during the dry season, which for
this Southern Hemisphere region is June through September. Visible near the
horizon are the Andes Mountains of Bolivia, which provide a natural barrier so
that little dense smoke reaches the altiplano of southern Peru and Bolivia;
only valleys and canyons along the eastern slopes of the Andes are impacted by
this periodic, widespread burning.
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