Snow was retreating northward, ice was breaking up in Volga River (left), and springtime agricultural fires (yellow) were burning in western Russia on April 24, 2004, when this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite was captured. Fires have been marked in yellow, and they stretch from Russia (top) across the border into northern Kazakhstan.
The widespread nature of the fires and the time of year suggests that these fires are being set intentionally for agricultural purposes. Though not necessarily immediately hazardous, such large-scale burning can have a strong impact on weather, climate, human health, and natural resources.
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 Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-GSFC
