Climate Conditions Determine Amazon Fire Risk Using an innovative satellite technique , NASA scientists have determined that a previously unmapped type of wildfire in the Amazon rainforest is responsible for destroying several times more forest than has been lost through deforestation in recent years . In the southern Amazon rainforest , fires below the forest treetops , or " understory fires , " have been hidden from view from NASA satellites that detect actively burning fires . › Amazon Forest Fire Risk to Increase in 2013