Extreme fire behavior in Alaska continued across the turning of the calendar from June to July 2004. Yellowish-gray smoke hung over much of the state, while fires (locations outlined in red) continued to grow across the landscape. Many of these blazes have been burning since mid-June, triggered by a few days of record-breaking lightning. Hot, dry, and windy conditions since then have pushed fire behavior to extreme levels at many locations. The Boundary Fire, north of Fairbanks, was spreading at a rate of 3 miles an hour on July 1, and at times firefighters reported that flame lengths were as long as 30 feet. This image was captured on July 1 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAâs Terra satellite.
The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at
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Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center
