On July 25, 2013 the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured valuable images from the Khanty-Mansiyskiy and Yamal-Nenetskiy districts of Russia, showing the smoke billowing from large fires that have been affecting this region during the month of July.
Due to an intense heat wave in central Russia, the Taiga forests of Siberia became the scenario for a number of wildfire outbreaks. About 34 wildfires were burning in Khanty-Mansiyskiy and 56 in Yamalo-Nenetskiy in late-July, according to the ITAR-TASS news agency. The red outlines that appear in the picture show hot spots where MODIS detected higher surface temperatures than normally, which are associated with the presence of fire.
