Fires North of Russia’s Lake Baikal

Fires North of Russia’s Lake Baikal

In mid-July 2006, dozens of forest fires were burning across Russia’s Central Siberian Plateau between the north-flowing Lena River and Lake Baikal. Thick smoke swirled in the skies over the region. This pair of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows a close-in view of the fires (top) and a wider-area view of the region (bottom). The area of the close-up view is outlined with a white box in the lower image. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked in red.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.