On July 27, 2015, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this view of smoke from fires burning near the shoreline of Lake Baikal in southern Russia. Actively burning areas, detected by the thermal bands on MODIS, are outlined in red.
Lake Baikal—the largest freshwater lake by volume in the world—has seen water levels drop in recent months, according to news reports. As a result, drying peat reserves around the lake could lead to more summertime wildfires.
Earlier in 2015, smoke that originated from fires in southern Russia crossed over the Pacific Ocean and reached the Pacific Northwest.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Caption by Kathryn Hansen.
