File:Argentina (MODIS 2016-11-02).jpg

English: On October 29, 2016, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured a true-color image centered on northern Argentina.

Black boundary lines have been placed on the image to delineate borders between countries. Brazil lies in the northeast and a little piece of Bolivia can be seen in the northwest. Uruguay sits south of Bolivia and western Brazil, with Argentina filling the southern section of the image.

Dozens of red dots mark fires burning in Uruguay and northern Argentina. At higher resolution (500 m), smoke can be seen blowing from many of the red hotspots, indicating actively burning fires. Most of these fires sit at the edges of rectangular-shaped, tan areas which are typical of cropland or pastureland. A few burn in more forested areas.

The fires in agricultural areas are highly suggestive of use of fires as a deliberate land management tool rather than wildfires. People use fire to clear forest, savannas, and grasslands for ranching and farming. The heavy expansion of agricultural activities into forests and grasslands is primarily the result of industrial-scale farming and ranching which has been replacing traditional community-scale farming in Argentina and other parts of South America.