June 11, 2015 - Fires and smoke in northern Canada

Fires and smoke in northern Canada

A dry winter followed by a warm, dry spring has led to an early and aggressive fire season throughout much of northern Canada in 2015. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image on June 7, 2015. Large fires in Alberta (west) and Saskatchewan (east) are the source of huge plumes of dark gray and tan smoke, which pour to the southwest. By June 9, smoke from these fires was causing haze and unusual sunsets and sunrises as far south as Washington, DC in the United States.

On June 8, The Active Wildfire Mapping Program through the USDA Forest Service has pinpointed six active fires larger than 2500 hectares (6,177 acres) in the Alberta province of Canada. The Alberta wildfire status map shows even more wildfires in the province. Fire number-HWF151 was considered out of control at 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) and is located approximately 12 kilometers west of the Wood Buffalo National Park border. The winds are coming from the northwest, pushing the wildfire to the east toward Wood Buffalo National Park. The wildfire has had very little growth towards the north, keeping its distance from Fox Lake at 18 kilometers. No human life is at risk at this time. Fire number-HWF157 was located 18 km south-east of the community of Fox Lake. This wildfire has grown to 2,600 hectares in size (6,424 acres) and is out of control.

The fires in Saskatchewan are located in the Buffalo Narrows FPA. On June 8, there were 47 active wildfires with 15 active wildfires over 100 hectares in size. The most urgent fire in Saskatchewan has been designated 15BN-David. It is considered a priority fire for the area and was out of control having consumed 4,678 hectares (11,559 acres) by that date.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 6/7/2015
Resolutions: 1km (1.2 MB), 500m (4.1 MB), 250m (9.8 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC