The DSCOVR satellite belonging to NASA has managed to photograph smoke from forest fires raging in Canada. It is at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth.
As of June 1, 2025, more than 180 wildfires were raging in Canada. In total, 1,586 fires have ravaged one million hectares since the beginning of the year. Their intensity is so great that their smoke columns can be easily seen from space. And we are not talking about the low orbit where the ISS is located, but about a point far beyond the Moon.
This is proved by the image taken by the DSCOVR satellite on May 31, 2025. It is at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from our planet at the Lagrangian point L1 of the Sun-Earth system. For comparison, the average distance between the Earth and the Moon is 384 thousand kilometers.
Despite this great distance, the smoke plumes generated by the fires are visible in the image. One extends northeast across Nunavut to the Greenland coast. The other runs south across the United States to Florida. Another patch of smoke is visible over the Atlantic Ocean near Europe. It is worth noting that the haze west of Africa is not smoke from fires, but dust brought from the Sahara Desert to the west.
The fires have already forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate and local authorities to declare states of emergency in several Canadian provinces. They have also caused health concerns, as particles in the air have worsened air quality both in Canada and several American states. Thus, relevant warnings have already been issued by the authorities in Michigan and Minnesota.
Earlier, we told you about how satellites photographed the aftermath of the Mount Etna eruption.
Provided by Earthobservatory
