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Canadian
Wildfire Smoke Engulfs Eastern U.S. 
Smoke
from multiple large wildfires in Québec is blanketing the southern portion
of the Canadian province and extending southward over the Great Lakes and eastern
United States. This image was acquired by the Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) on the Terra
satellite on July 7, 2002, and shows dozens of active fire detections (red
dots) east of James Bay at upper left. The
enormous smoke plume is almost 200 miles wide where it enters the United States
over the New York and Vermont state lines. The thick pall is affecting air quality
in places well to the south, including New York, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.
The image shows the smoke drifting out over the Atlantic Ocean, and then curling
back in over North Carolina (bottom right). On
Sunday, July 7, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center reported 15 new fires
in Québec in the preceding 24 hours, bringing the total to more than 40
fires in the region, at least 7 which were burning out of control. Most of the
fires are believed to have been caused by lightning, more of which is expected
on Monday. According to news reports, several hundred people remain evacuated
from their homes.
Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres,MODIS
Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Back
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