Fires in Alaska
Firesburning across Alaska
2 August 2005
In central Alaska in late July 2005, dozens of large, smoky fires were burning along the length of the Yukon River, spanning nearly the entire west-east extent of the state. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) on NASAs Terra satellite shows how thick the smoke was over the region on July 27. Locations where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked in red. During the latter half of the week, winds were from the northeast, causing smoke to pool in the central part of the state and leading to air qualitywarnings.
TERRA
27 July 2005
21:45 hrs UTC
(Image courtesy MODIS) 
True colour: Bands 1-4-3 
False Colour: Bands 7-2-1
The links provide a 500mresolution for both scenes
The left image is a photo-like image in natural colours, while theright image has been enhanced by including MODIS observations of infraredlight. In the false colour scene, vegetation is bright green, clouds are lightblue, and the burned area is magenta. Bright pink indicates areas that wereactively flaming at the time.
For background information on the Fire Situation in Alaska see:
- Alaska Fire Service website
- Geographic Information Network of Alaska
- Alaska Fire Service Report Page
