Siberia Burns by MODIS

The above image acquired June 18 from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), aboard the Terra satellite, shows an enormous 198 wildfires burning across Siberia.

On June 18, 2012, a total of 198 wildfires burned across Russia and had charred an area that covered 8,330 hectares (32 square miles). Many were in central Russia, where firefighters have battled uncontrolled fires for months.

These images of numerous fires and heavy smoke, are near the borders of Khanty-Mansiisk, Krasnoyarsk, and Tomsk. Active fires are shown with red outlines.

According to Russian authorities, many of the fires started when people lost control of agricultural fires and campfires. However, lightning sparked some of the blazes as well.

According to the environmental group Greenpeace, more land in Russia has burned this year than in 2010, a year that intense wildfires affected western Russia and produced rare pyrocumulus “fire clouds.”

via earthobservatory