Africa
Fires in Canada
6 June 2005
Current Fire Situation
In the past 24 hours there have been 40 new fires reported. To date there have been a total of 2,413 fires for a total area consumed of 315,167 hectares. See also Current Fire Situation Report.
Fires in Québec
For current news from the media on the Québec fires see following articles from June 4 and 6:
Latest satellite scenes on Québec fires from MODIS:
As shown in these images (below) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs TERRA and AQUA satellites from 5 June 2005, smoke streams westward across Eastern Canada (upper left edge). The lower image taken by AQUA few hours later, shows that fire situation is increasing (active fires detected by MODIS are outlined in red).
Note changing wind direction compared to images from 2 June 2005 below (Earth Observatory).
5 June 2005
TERRA
Source: MODIS
5 June 2005
AQUA
Source: MODIS
Latest satellite scenes from Earth Observatory:
Smoke continued to pour from fires in the Quebec province of Canada on June 2, 2005. Scores of fires have been burning in the area since the end of May. According to reports from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center, at least 20 of the 83 fires burning as of June 2 were out of control. Nearly all the fires were started by lightning.
Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
In this image (top) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Terra satellite from June 2, thick smoke streams eastward across Quebec and out over the Gulf of St. Lawrence toward the island of Newfoundland (far right edge). The lower image shows a close-up view of the fires (areas where MODIS detected active fire are outlined in red) to the southeast of Mistassini Lake. Other large fires are burning farther to the west, outside of the scene shown here. Those fires were likely adding to the smoke pictured in this image.
According to news reports from the Montreal Gazette, more than 80 lightning-triggered fires were burning across Quebec province in Canada on June 2, 2005. As many as 18 of the fires were burning out of control. Throughout the territory, hundreds of people were forced to evacuate their homes as a precaution, and vehicles were being escorted in convoys along sections of highways that were closed due to smoke.
Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite shows several large blazes to the east of James Bay (upper left) on June 1, 2005. Areas where MODIS detected active fires have been outlined in red.
The high-resolution version of the image is at MODIS maximum spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The image spans an area from James Bay in the west to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in the east.
The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) provides a daily update of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) products. Earth Probe TOMS depicts aerosols emitted from vegetation fires, desert dust storms and other sources. The Today’s Aerosol Conditions from Earth Probe provides daily updated global TOMS Aerosol Index maps.
High concentrations of aerosols can be seen in the Northern Atlantic due to large fires in Eastern Canada in this TOMS map from 4 June 2005.
Fire Danger / Hot Spot Map, 5 June 2005:
Source: http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/cfs-scf/index_e.html
Rate of Spread / mean values for June 2005:
Source: http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/cfs-scf/index_e.html
For further information see also:
