In January 2016, fire raged in the largest landfill in the Indian city of Mumbai.

Located in an eastern suburb of the city, the Deonar dumping ground extends across 132 hectares (326 acres) near Thane Creek. It receives over 3,700 metric tons (8.1 million pounds) of trash per day, about one-third of the city’s waste. With piles of trash that rise up to 30 meters (100 feet)—the equivalent of a nine-story building—the landfill has literally become a mountain of trash.

Beginning on January 27, 2016, sensors on the Terra, Aqua, and Suomi NPP satellites began to detect evidence of smoke and fire at the landfill. The fires continued to burn intensely for four days, sometimes sending smoke into densely populated neighborhoods. In some parts of the city, the smoke pushed air pollution to the highest level recorded since air quality data monitoring began in June 2015, according to Hindustan Times. For four days, more than 70 schools closed because of the smoke.

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured a natural-color image (upper) of the burn scar on January 28, 2016. Smoke is visible streaming southwest into Baiganwadi, a neighborhood near the landfill. The false-color image (lower) also was acquired by OLI, but it shows the location of the fire hot spots more clearly because it includes observations from the shortwave infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

It is not clear why or how the fires started, though some reports suggest they may have been set intentionally. Fires in landfills are often particularly difficult to extinguish because they burn through methane, plastic, and other highly flammable substances.

• References

• Bloomberg Business (2015, July 26) Mumbai Is Overflowing with Garbage. Accessed February 1, 2016.
• Hindustan Times (2016, January 30) NASA satellites capture thick smog caused by Deonar fire. Accessed February 1, 2016.
• Mumbai Mirror (2016, January 30) ‘3 Minors Started Deonar Blaze’. Accessed February 1, 2016.
• NDTV (2016, February 1) Fire In Mumbai's Deonar: Area Under Thick Smog, Schools Remain Shut. Accessed February 1, 2016.
• SATAQ (2016, January 31) NASA Images Show Dump Fires in Mumbai. Accessed February 1, 2016.
• The Times of India (2016, January 31) Smoke from Deonar fire keeps Mumbai pollution near record high. Accessed February 1, 2016.
• Waste Management World (2010, January 8) Understanding landfill fires. Accessed February 1, 2016.

Article from: NASA's Earth Observatory