The wildfire situation in Canada is dynamic as more and more wildfires have broken out across central Canada. On June 10, 2015, a Terra satellite image showed smoke from the Canadian fires drifting down over the U.S. mid-West. The next day the satellite image from June 11th showed that smoke over the Mid-Atlantic. Now a little more than two weeks later, more smoke is pouring into the United States from Canadian wildfires.
This image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Terra satellite on June 30, 2015. Residents of the states affected by the smoke will notice much more vivid sunsets during the time the smoke is in the air. The size of the smoke particles is just right for filtering out other colors meaning that red, pink and orange colors can be seen more vividly in the sky. Don’t spend a lot of time admiring the sunsets, though, as any kind of smoke is hazardous to your health. All smoke contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter (PM or soot).
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard, Lynn Jenner