Fires in the Northern Rockies

Fires in the Northern Rockies

On September 6, 2003, dozens of large fires were burning in the northern Rockies of British Columbia (top), Montana (bottom right), Idaho (bottom center), and Washington (bottom left). In Montana, a line of fires stretches southward from the U.S.-Canada border for 190 kilometers (118 miles), creating a wall of smoke that hangs over the Lewis Range Mountains east of Flathead Lake. This image of the fires (marked in red) was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite on September 6.

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