September 22, 2015
Image of the Day: Satellite view of burn scar near Lake Baikal, 13 September 2015
By Adam Voiland
13 September 2015
(NASA) – Russians normally flock to the shores of Lake Baikal during the summer to camp and enjoy spectacular views of the world’s deepest freshwater lake. In summer 2015, such views were frequently obscured by smoke. For months, fires have raged around the lake, inspiring observers to use words like “catastrophic” and “doomsday” to describe the damage to forests surrounding it. The Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8 captured this natural-color image of a few fires still lingering around the western shore of Lake Baikal on 13 September 2015. Note the charred, blackened vegetation west of the largest smoke plume.
