Smoke from Russian fires moves over Alaska

Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory shows smoke produced by raging fires across Russia that drifted nearly halfway around the world. Smoke from Russian fires moves over Alaska as shown in the image above.

Fires that broke out in the Sakha province generated a smoke plume that traveled over 5,000 miles in 11 days, carrying gases and small particles known as aerosols.

By July 14, the plume had weakened south of Greenland. The fires were primarily caused by thunderstorms and human activities.Smoke from Russian fires moves over Alaska

This image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on July 7, 2018.

Alaska (/əˈlæskə/ (listen); Aleut: Alax̂sxax̂; Inupiaq: Alaasikaq; Alutiiq: Alas’kaaq; Tlingit: Anáaski; Russian: Аляска, romanized: Alyaska) is a U.S. state in the northwest extremity of the United States West Coast, just across the Bering Strait from Asia. The Canadian province of British Columbia and territory of Yukon border the state to the east and southeast. Its most extreme western part is Attu Island, and it has a maritime border with Russia (Chukotka Autonomous Okrug) to the west across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas—southern parts of the Arctic Ocean. The Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. It is the largest U.S. state by area and the seventh largest subnational division in the world. In addition, it is the 3rd least populous and the most sparsely populated of the 50 United States; nevertheless, it is by far the most populous territory located mostly north of the 60th parallel in North America: its population—estimated at 738,432 by the United States Census Bureau in 2015—is more than quadruple the combined populations of Northern Canada and Greenland. Approximately half of Alaska’s residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. Alaska’s economy is dominated by the fishing, natural gas, and oil industries, resources which it has in abundance. United States armed forces bases and tourism are also a significant part of the economy.

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory