NASA MODIS Image of the Day: July 31, 2011 – Fires and smoke in eastern Russia
Following a hot and dry spring and summer, the taiga of Russia’s Far East were covered by numerous fires in late July, 2011.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra Satellite captured this image on July 26, 2011 at 2:15 UTC as it passed over the region.
Marked by red dots, many actively burning fires appear on the mainland west of Sakhalin Island, which remains fire-free. Most fires produce heavy smoke which blows to the east to northeast and curls over the Sea of Okhotsk. The area affected by forest fires in Siberia has decreased by almost 50 percent on July 17 to 1,341 hectares, reported the Russian Emergencies Ministry in a news article by RIA Novosti. In an additional report, EMERCOM of Russia said that nearly 120 fires burning in the Russian Federation as of July 28, with 19 in the Far Eastern Federal District.
