Central Asia

A large fire burned in Kazakhstan on September 8, 2003, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image. A plume of grey-white smoke rises from the fire, which has been marked with red dots. Several smaller fires also burned in Kazakhstan, left, and Russia, top. Russia’s Western Sayan Mountains provide a deep green contrast to the desert landscape. To their south, the Altay Mountains extend across China, lower center, and Mongolia, right. Between the Altay Mountains and the Kunlun Mountains, along the bottom edge of the image, is the Taklimakan Desert, a bowl of sand known for its frequent dust storms.

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Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Published October 17, 2003
Data acquired September 8, 2003

Source:

Terra > MODIS

Collection:

Visible Earth