Images & Animations
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Credit
Image by Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA-GSFC
Scores of fires were detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) over western Russia on September 8, 2002, and have been marked with red dots. A thick blanket of smoke continues to hang over the area from the Gulf of Finlandia (top left) all the way south to the Black Sea as it has done nearly the entire summer.
News reports attribute the unusually persistent haze to an above normal numbers of fires caused by the warmest and driest summer in 30 years. Weather conditions have repeatedly trapped the smoke near the ground, and have produced many days where the carbon monoxide level was 2 to 4 times the maximum allowable level for public health and safety. Flights have been diverted from Moscow (hidden beneath smoke and clouds at the right center edge of the image), and residents have been encouraged to stay inside with wet sheets draped over the windows.
Metadata
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Sensor
No Satellite/Composite -
Visualization Date
2002-09-11
