Contact: Mike Carlowicz
Michael.j.carlowicz@nasa.gov
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Smoke Over the Bering Sea

Caption: A plume of smoke stretched across the Bering Sea on May 11, 2012, as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead. This natural-color image shows part of the Bering Sea, just off far eastern Russia. The smoke appears dull blue-gray, darker than surrounding clouds. The smoke stretching across the Bering Sea may have arisen from wildfires in the general region of Lake Baikal, where numerous wildfires burned in early May 2012. A model from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Air Resources Laboratory suggests that smoke from the Lake Baikal region could reach the Bering Sea within a few days. A study published in 2004 tracked the movement of smoke from Russian wildfires, finding that smoke typically travels in two directions: northwest towards Scandinavia, and east toward the Okhotsk Sea. The smoke heading east often crosses the Bering Sea towards Alaska and Canada, the study found.

Credit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Michon Scott with information from Ralph Kahn, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Instrument: Terra - MODIS

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