A blanket of smoke from scores of wildfires hung over central Canada on July 4, 2006. This image of the area was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite that afternoon at 2:40 p.m. Central Standard Time. Places where MODIS detected active fires are marked in red. In this image, fires are burning in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. Smoke appears light gray or yellow-gray, where it is very thick. The smoke spreads over a wide area, reaching northward into Northwest Territories and eastward into Manitoba. Several thousand people have been forced to evacuate their homes because of various wildfires throughout western and central Canada off and on since late June.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by the MODIS Rapid Response team.
