On June 19, 2013, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of smoke from wildfires burning in western Alaska. The smoke was moving west over Norton Sound. (The center of the image is roughly 163° West and 62° North.) Red outlines indicate hot spots where MODIS detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with fire.
According to an advisory released by the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, record heat and dry fuels have produced record-setting fire potential across boreal spruce forests and tundra landscapes. The heat wave is the product of an intense ridge of high pressure over the state.