Smoke across central Russia

Smoke across central Russia

In July 2013, an intense heat wave in central Russia fueled an outbreak of wildfire in the taiga forests of Siberia. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of thick smoke from the fires over the Khanty-Mansiyskiy and Yamal-Nenetskiy districts of Russia on July 29, 2013. Red outlines indicate hot spots where MODIS detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with fire. The image is centered near 68.9° East longitude and 61.5° North latitude.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Adam Voiland.