Visibility approached zero in some parts of Alaska over the weekend of August 21, 2004, as thick smoke poured from wildfires burning in the state�s interior. The National Weather Service issued a dense smoke warning for the region surrounding Fairbanks, and Alaska�s Department of Environmental Conservation issued an air quality alert for the same region. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the air quality in Fairbanks remains at hazardous levels. This true-color image shows how dense the smoke was on August 21, 2004. The Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on the Orbview-2 satellite observed the smoke arching across Alaska and over the Bering Strait. The smoke is so thick that the ground can�t be seen. Alaska�s intense fire season began in mid-June when lightning triggered a number of large fires.
Image provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE