In south-central Russia, many rivers flow down the northern slopes of the Altay Mountains and out across the Central and West Siberian Plains. At the time this image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on May 17, 2005, numerous fires were burning in the plains between several of Russia’s major rivers. Active fires detected by MODIS, probably agricultural fires, have been marked with red dots.
Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-GSFC