Smoke Over the Midwestern U.S. and Canada

Smoke Over the Midwestern U.S. and Canada. This true-color image shows smoke spreading eastward over a large region in the midwestern United States and Canada. The smoke was generated from a number of intense wildfires burning to the west in both countries. This scene was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite, on Aug. 22, 2003.

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres (3.85 million square miles), making it the world’s second-largest country by total area. Its southern border with the United States, stretching some 8,891 kilometres (5,525 mi), is the world’s longest bi-national land border. Canada’s capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, and 70 per cent residing within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of the southern border. Canada’s climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

Credit: Image by Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory, based upon data courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team at Goddard Space Flight Center