According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service’s Active Fire Mapping Program, roughly 40 wildfires greater than 2,500 hectares burned in Canada on September 11, 2006. Most of those fires were in western Canada. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture on September 9. Although just two hotspots (areas of unusually warm surface temperatures, indicated in red) appear in this image, a thick plume of smoke streaks its way up through Alberta into the Northwest Territories. The smoke plume is thickest in the center, gradually thinning out on either side.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
