East and west of Lake Baikal in south-central Russia, hundreds of fires were burning and filling the skies with dense smoke on May 8, 2003. This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Terra satellite shows the active fires marked with red dots. The southern end of Lake Baikal is losing its winter covering of ice.
The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters.
Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
