Throughout mid- to late October 2005, scores of fires were burning in Russia's Far East and along the border with China. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on October 31, a swirling cloud of smoke hung over Sakhalin Island and the Sea of Okhotsk. Two fires (marked in red) were detected in the scene by MODIS, but they are probably not solely responsible for the smoke. Fires farther west, outside the frame of the image, are likely contributing to the haze, as well.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).
