Are farm fires going uncounted? ISRO study suggests farmers have figured out a way to evade satellites

A study by India's space agency, ISRO, suggests that farmers may have found a way to avoid having their crop fires counted by satellites.

Traditionally, authorities use satellites to detect large fires when farmers burn leftover crop stubble, a major cause of air pollution in northern India.

However, the new study indicates that many farmers are now burning their fields at times when the satellites are not passing overhead, or are spreading the burning out over smaller, harder-to-detect fires. This means the official satellite counts may be missing a significant number of these fires, making the problem seem smaller than it actually is.

In short, while official data might show a decrease, the actual number of harmful farm fires could be much higher than reported.

Read this report here: Are farm fires going uncounted? ISRO study suggests farmers have figured out a way to evade satellites