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Satellite image captures Russia ablaze

By James Dacey

They are being described as the worst wildfires in modern Russian history and they show little sign of abating.

This image, captured by a EUMETSAT satellite, shows the thick grey smoke that has been sweeping towards Moscow from peat and forest wildfires in central and south Russia. They are a result of the country experiencing its hottest July since records began.

Today, the BBC has reported that Moscow’s daily death rate has now doubled as a result of the continuing heatwave and the wildfire smog. Meanwhile, there is also a state of emergency in the southern Urals as the fires approach Ozersk, a town that closed following Russia’s worst nuclear disaster in 1957.

This image was captured last Wednesday by the AVHRR instrument aboard the EUMETSAT’s Metop-A polar-orbiting satellite, launched in 1986. Moscow is marked by yellow writing towards the bottom left of the image.

Posted by James Dacey on Aug 9, 2010 4:34 PM | Permalink