Large fires in the forested mountains of Russia southeast of Lake Baikal (Burytiya region) and northern Mongolia’s Selenge province continued to grow on May 22, 2009. Thick columns of smoke stream eastward from the fires (locations outlined in red). In a previous image of this area, patchy clouds south-southwest of Lake Baikal partially hid the extent of the large fires burning there. Among the largest is the fire northwest of Mongolia’s second-largest city, Erdenet. This image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on May 22.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
