Russian wildfires sent smoke over the Kamchatka Peninsula and Pacific Ocean in late April 2008. At this time of year, the fires are probably a combination of intentional agricultural fires and accidental human-caused wildfires. Fires south of Lake Baikal and north of the Amur River produced smoke plumes hundreds of kilometers long.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture on April 21, 2008. This image shows a combination of smoke and clouds hovering over the icy-white Kamchatka Peninsula and the surrounding waters. Compared to clouds, the smoke is a grimy shade of beige, especially in the northwest. Over the ocean, however, the smoke appears pale, although it is slightly darker and more translucent than the clouds.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response team. Caption by Michon Scott.
