Ocean-monitoring satellite spots wildfire smoke from space photo of the day for July 1, 2026
Wildfires across the globe can be seen all the way from space. And one unexpected tool has come in handy to spot plumes of wildfire smoke: a satellite designed to study Earth’s oceans.
What is it?
In this photo, we can see swirls of wildfire smoke over the Great Lakes in Canada. Fluffy white clouds float over the land and lakes, in contrast to the wisps of gray smoke, which float out from massive wildfires that ripped through North America.
Why is it incredible?
This image, among others, shows the incredible versatility of space technologies like PACE. While wildfire monitoring isn’t its explicit purpose, images and data from this mission could be incredibly helpful in deepening our understanding of wildfires and how they spread.
“The PACE satellite observes land too, and does it really well,” Skye Caplan, terrestrial lead for the PACE mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a statement. “There is so much to explore with a new hyperspectral data set.”
In fact, in addition to capturing wildfire smoke, as we can see in this image, PACE’s Ocean Color Instrument can also spot changes in vegetation, burn scars and the charred aftermath of a wildfire. Images in the instrument’s hundreds of wavelengths can reveal a variety of detailed information, such as how stressed, dry or even pigmented plants are on Earth’s surface. This type of information could also be beneficial in identifying dry areas that could be at a higher risk of wildfires sparking.
Wildfires across the globe can be seen all the way from space. And one unexpected tool has come in handy to spot plumes of wildfire smoke: a satellite designed to study Earth’s oceans.
What is it?
In this photo, we can see swirls of wildfire smoke over the Great Lakes in Canada. Fluffy white clouds float over the land and lakes, in contrast to the wisps of gray smoke, which float out from massive wildfires that ripped through North America.
Why is it incredible?
This image, among others, shows the incredible versatility of space technologies like PACE. While wildfire monitoring isn’t its explicit purpose, images and data from this mission could be incredibly helpful in deepening our understanding of wildfires and how they spread.
“The PACE satellite observes land too, and does it really well,” Skye Caplan, terrestrial lead for the PACE mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a statement. “There is so much to explore with a new hyperspectral data set.”
In fact, in addition to capturing wildfire smoke, as we can see in this image, PACE’s Ocean Color Instrument can also spot changes in vegetation, burn scars and the charred aftermath of a wildfire. Images in the instrument’s hundreds of wavelengths can reveal a variety of detailed information, such as how stressed, dry or even pigmented plants are on Earth’s surface. This type of information could also be beneficial in identifying dry areas that could be at a higher risk of wildfires sparking.
