Fires North of Amur River, Russia

Fires North of Amur River, Russia

Fires, probably part of the late water/early spring clean up of agricultural areas, were burning in northern China and far eastern Russia around the Amur River/Heilong Jiang on March 11, 2008, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image. Locations of actively burning fires are marked in red. Dark brown patches nearby are burned areas. The bare winter ground appears light tan, and snow still lies over much of the region. Boreal forest areas appear deep green, and frozen rivers wind across the landscape.

You can download a 250-meter-resolution KMZ file of the fires suitable for use with Google Earth.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained from the Goddard Land Processes data archives (LAADS). Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.