Large forest fires that began in July in Russia’s Magadan region continued into August, leaving dark brown burn scars across the remote, sparsely populated landscape. Smoke from these fires and others in Alaska and Canada were creating hazy skies across the Arctic. This image shows more than two dozen large fires (outlined in red) that were burning when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead on August 1, 2009.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
