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July 13, 2026 - Fires in Northwest Territories
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In early July 2026, several wildland fires burned in the Sahtu Region of Canada's Northwest Territories near Great Bear Lake. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of some of the larger fires on July 8. Even as copious sea ice remains in the Amundsen Gulf, smoke clouds the sky so thickly that it obscures the land beneath from view.
As of July 12, the Environment and Climate Change division of the territorial government was tracking 64 fires in the Sahtu region that had collectively burned nearly 169,000 hectares (417,000 acres).
In an article published in January 2026, NASA’s Earth Observatory discusses a report released in 2025 that centered on wildland fires in the Arctic. In that report, researchers found that the number of wildland fires burning in Arctic regions is on the rise, and these fires are burning larger, hotter, and longer than they did in previous decades.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 7/8/2026
Resolutions:
1km (536.7 KB), 500m (1.5 MB), 250m (3.9 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
In early July 2026, several wildland fires burned in the Sahtu Region of Canada's Northwest Territories near Great Bear Lake. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of some of the larger fires on July 8. Even as copious sea ice remains in the Amundsen Gulf, smoke clouds the sky so thickly that it obscures the land beneath from view.
As of July 12, the Environment and Climate Change division of the territorial government was tracking 64 fires in the Sahtu region that had collectively burned nearly 169,000 hectares (417,000 acres).
In an article published in January 2026, NASA’s Earth Observatory discusses a report released in 2025 that centered on wildland fires in the Arctic. In that report, researchers found that the number of wildland fires burning in Arctic regions is on the rise, and these fires are burning larger, hotter, and longer than they did in previous decades.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 7/8/2026
Resolutions:
1km (536.7 KB), 500m (1.5 MB), 250m (3.9 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
