Canadian wildfire smoke traveled over 2,000 miles into Europe

Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features smoke from Quebec wildfires as it drifted across the Atlantic Ocean and into northern Portugal and Spain in southwestern Europe. 

Black carbon particles, or “soot,” traveled across more than 2,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean, according to NASA, and the smoke moved northward over additional European countries that are not visible in the image. 

“The black carbon density data come from NASA’s GEOS forward processing (GEOS-FP) model, which assimilates data from satellite, aircraft, and ground-based observing systems. In addition to making use of satellite observations of aerosols and fires, GEOS-FP incorporates meteorological data like air temperature, moisture, and winds to project the plume’s behavior,” said NASA.

“Hazy skies in Europe were also observed by a global network of ground sensors called the Aerosols Robotic Network, or AERONET. The network contains more than 500 Sun photometer instruments that measure aerosol optical depth (AOD) around the world.”

“On the morning of June 26, AERONET sensors in northern Spain and France measured AODs greater than 0.5. The AOD in these areas is typically close to 0.1.”

The image was captured on June 26, 2023 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory 

—–

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.