Forces of Change
Smoke Gets in Our Skies
Photo © Digital Vision/Getty Images

Where is the Fire?

Smoke from forest fires in Quebec in July 2002 reached Boston in just a few days. The sky turned yellow. Smoke from fires in the Yucatan travels in our atmosphere in Texas and beyond. Fungi from the Yucatan travel on smoke particles through our atmosphere.

Aerial photo of Tel Jemmeh
Smoke from a forest fire in the Canadian Rockies can block sunlight in the midwestern United States.
Photo © Todd Gipstein/National Geographic/Getty Images
TOMS
Photo courtesy of Jay Herman, NASA GSFC
MODIS
Photo courtesy of Yorum Kaufman, NASA GSFC
Two different satellite images of smoke from forest fires (a TOMS image, above left, and a MODIS image, above right) show both the intensity (red is the area of densest smoke) and spread of smoke from Canadian fires to New England and the Mid-Atlantic States.