Fires in Southern Siberia

At the southern end of the West Siberia Plain, several large and smoky fires in southern siberia were burning in the area around Novosibirsk on May 19, 2006. This image of the fires (outlined in red) was captured by the MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. According to news reports, May 2006 has been hot and dry, with accompanying high fire danger. The West Siberia Plain is a wet region, and it has large amounts of peat. Peat fires can be long-lived and can produce vast amounts of smoke. It is possible that some of the large, smoky fires seen in this image are peat fires.