JPG File 9.1M
Figure 7.5
(A) Fires on the Russian and Mongolian border, May 1, 1997. This oblique, west-looking view of the forested mountain ranges in northern Mongolia and southern Russia (NASA photograph NM23-756-448) shows the same forested regions as in Figure 7.4. Lake Baikal appears at the top of the view still covered with areas of winter ice. Multiple, discrete point sources of smoke (lower left) originate within the mountainous country on the border between the Russian Federation and Mongolia. The fires appear to be located within but near the edges of the green, forested areas (upper inset, a zoomed view of fires in the region just below center), which occupy higher elevations. Smaller patches of smoke appear beyond the main forested region (top left). Winds take smoke southward (towards the lower left). At the bottom of the view are the semiarid steppes of northern Mongolia which appear as a light brown. A prominent, angular burn scar can be seen indicating a grassland fire (center foreground and lower inset). (B) Fires in China and the Russian Far East, May 2, 1997. About 700 km of the coastal ranges of Russia and the mountainous north of North Korea appear as the darker feature crossing the photograph (NASA photograph NM23-763-613). Most of the view shows a widespread smoke pall, both inland in China (top in this west-looking view) and on the seaward side of the mountains (bottom). The smoke pall area on May 2, 1997 can be estimated from this view to be at least half a million km2. Individual fires appear on the seaward slopes with smoke plumes driven towards Japan by westerly winds (top right to lower left).
