Rivers of smoke over Sakha in the Russian Far East

Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features wildfire smoke lingering over parts of Khabarovsk and the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Far East. 

“During the first week of July, NASA satellites began detecting signs that several wildland fires were burning in Russia’s far east. Two weeks later, several fires had grown much larger and more intense,” reports NASA.

“Many of the fires were burning in the Ayano-Maysky district of Khabarovsk, which is home to larch forests and the circular Kondyor massif.”

According to an emergency ministry in Sakha, 51 fires burned across roughly 38 square miles on July 18. Hundreds of people were fighting the fires in Sakha, and thousands more were battling other fires nationwide.

“For the past two years, Sakha has endured unusually severe fire seasons. In 2021, more than 8.4 million hectares of forests burned in Sakha, nearly four times the long-term average,” says NASA. “Fires are not the only hazard facing the region. Flooding along the Yana River recently displaced hundreds of people in Sakha.”

The image was captured on July 17, 2022 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory 

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer