(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) For most of the past decade, forecasters have been able to use satellites to track ...

For most of the past decade, forecasters have been able to use satellites to track these smoke plumes, but the view was only two-dimensional: The satellites couldn’t determine how close the smoke was ...

Aerosol particles in high smoke plumes reflect more light back into space. Closer to Earth’s surface, there is more oxygen to absorb light at the 688 nanometer wavelength, so less light is reflected.

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) For most of the past decade, forecasters have been able to use satellites to track ...

At 8 a.m. today (May 30), more than two hours after sunrise, fire smoke from Alberta, Canada forest fires thousands of miles away still reddened the sun and attenuated its light. Bob King It must have ...

NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of Siberian fires criss-crossing the landscape and huge clouds of smoke obscuring large portions of the countryside. The Aqua satellite captured the image ...