Satellites Capture Wildfire Smoke Reaching Fragile Arctic Ice

It's the height of the Arctic melt season — do you know where your ice is?

While Greenland and the Arctic sea ice cover have shown no signs of shattering melt records once again this year, satellite images taken on Friday and during late July provide indications that both land and sea ice will once again wind up well below average by the time the melt season ends in late September.

See also: Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Annual Peak, But Falls Far Short of Average

New satellite imagery from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show that wildfire smoke from huge blazes burning in northern Canada and Siberia has been drifting over Arctic land and sea ice in recent days, where it could hasten the seasonal melt. Wildfires burning in British Columbia and the Northern Territories of Canada have shrouded large parts of Canada and northern sections of the U.S. in a pungent milky haze during the past few weeks, with limited visibility noted at airports in Montana and Minnesota in late July, for example. Read more...

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