Fires in Western Canada

Fires in Western Canada

Ten thousand people have been evacuated from their homes in parts of Canada over the past week, as wildfires blaze across the country. This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Terra satellite was captured on August 3, 2003, and shows numerous actively burning fires marked with red dots. The town of Barriere in British Columbia is one of the devastated communities, with an estimated 70 houses burned already. According to news reports, fires are completely surrounding the town, which is located near the large cluster of red dots just south of the center of this image.

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