In central Alaska in late July 2005, dozens of large, smoky fires were burning along the length of the Yukon River, spanning nearly the entire west-east extent of the state. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows how thick the smoke was over the region on July 27. Locations where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked in red. During the latter half of the week, winds were from the northeast, causing smoke to pool in the central part of the state and leading to air quality warnings.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team.
