Siberian fires

Wildfires break out in the boreal forests of eastern Russia most summers, but 2016 has been particularly bad, with numerous blazes since July. This image, which was taken by the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite on 14 September, shows a string of fires northwest of Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is thought that drier conditions associated with warmer weather – this June being the hottest on record – have contributed to the unusually large number of fires.

While this image was captured with Sentinel-3A’s Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer, the same scene showing plumes of smoke stretching over 2000 km, was imaged with the satellite’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument.