May 21, 2023 - Canadian Wildfire Smoke Over Michigan

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Smoke from wildfires raging in Western Canada covered the skies over
Michigan and the surrounding Great Lakes in mid-May 2023. On May 18,
when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on
NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image, the cloud of
smoke was so thick that most of the blue waters of Lake Michigan
(west), northern Lake Huron (east) and the greens land of northern
Michigan were obscured from view.

The fires belching this smoke high into the atmosphere, where it can be
carried far across North America and the Atlantic Ocean, originate a
few thousand miles away in the provinces British Columbia,
Saskatchewan, and Alberta. As of May 16, these fires had scorched
478,000 hectares (1,800 square miles) which is 10-times the average
area burned for this time of year.

Local media across Michigan have been reporting gorgeous sunrises and
sunsets from the smoke, as well as some cloudy days as smoke passes
overhead. The cloud cover has been reported to be thick enough to lower
the afternoon temperatures. Intermittent poor air quality is another
feature of the travelling smoke, especially when rain brings the high
altitude pollution closer to the ground.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 5/18/2023
Resolutions: 1km (340.4 KB), 500m (810.8 KB), 250m (517.5
KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-05-21

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