NASA MODIS Image of the Day: May 28, 2011 – Smoke and fires in eastern Russia
Smoke billows from dozens of fires in eastern Russia on May 26, 2011 in an early and volatile start to the fire season.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite captured this true-color image at 02:45 UTC (12:45 p.
m. local) that same day. Fire season normally starts in Siberia in late June, but fires began to burn in early May this year due to unusually high temperatures, strong winds, and a dry winter. In the central cluster of fires, the wind blows in many directions, causing the smoke to rise in a swirling pattern. The overall wind pattern, however, trends generally westward, resulting in a thick veil of smoke lying hundreds of kilometers across the land. The braided Lena River can be seen angling from the top of the image, only to disappear under smoke. The city of Yakutsk, the capital city of the Sakha Republic, with a population of over 260,000, lies on the west bank of the Lena and is entirely obscured from view. Itar-Tass reported on May 26 that the fire area exceeds 95,600 hectares in Russia’s Far East. Sixty-six wildfires were reported, an increase by at least 13 over the previous day. The worst situation is in Yakutia, captured in this image, where over 50,000 hectares of forest and 41,000 hectares of non-forested areas have been engulfed in flames. Nearly 3,500 people, 13 aircraft and 260 pieces of ground machinery have been mobilized to fight the flames. On May 27, a regional state of emergency was declared in eight districts of Yakutia and in the city of Yakutsk itself by the republic’s presidential decree. The nearest fire to the capital city was reported to be 30 km away, but heavy smoke has shrouded the city. Residents have been cautioned to protect themselves against the smoke, and many are wearing gauze masks, as well as driving with headlights on even in the daytime, in order to be visible in the haze. The early fire season has been much more active this year than last. The RIA Novisti reports that by the end of May 2010, there had been only 440 fires recorded, but already there has been more than a thousand recorded in the Far East. Most fires have been attributed to human activity.
