14 DAY TRIAL // This past July 24, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS, for short) aboard the Aqua satellite obtained this image showing swirls of smoke hovering over North America's Great Lakes.
The image was later on shared with the general public by NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the United States) and is now making the rounds on the Internet.
On its website, NASA explains that, contrary to what some might assume, this smoke is not the result of a major barbecue party taking place in the proximity of said bodies of water.
On the contrary, the swirls originate from wildfires that have engulfed parts of Canada over the past couple of months. Thus, scientists say that smoke from these events is now drifting towards the United States.
“Canadian wildfires have been raging this summer and some of the smoke from those fires is drifting downward into the US,” the Administration writes in the image's description.
“In this image collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on July 24, 2014 a swath of smoke has descended over the Great Lakes region of the United States,” it adds.
One other image obtained by MODIS on July 23 and released by NASA just days ago shows the smoke working its way in a southeastern direction. This image is available below.
