Review of Land Fires and Smoke Haze Situation for First Fortnight of February 2019
1.1 In the Mekong sub-region, the hotspot and smoke haze activities remained elevated under the prevailing prolonged dry conditions. The smoke haze observed from hotspot clusters in Cambodia in January 2019 continued to persist into the first fortnight of February. In addition, moderate to dense smoke haze was observed over most parts of Thailand, and isolated hotspots with smoke plumes were observed in other parts of the Mekong sub-region. In the southern ASEAN region, shower fell over most parts of the region. However, isolated hotspots with localized smoke plumes were detected in parts of Sumatra during brief periods of dry conditions.
1.2 Figures 1 and 2 show satellite images over the ASEAN region in the first fortnight of February 2019.
Figure 1: Himawari-8 satellite image on 7 February 2019 shows moderate to dense smoke haze observed in Cambodia, Thailand, and parts of southern Lao PDR. Localised smoke plumes were observed in Myanmar.
Figure 2: AQUA satellite image on 13 February 2019 shows smoke plumes observed in parts of Sumatra.