Long-range Transport of 2023 Canadian Wildfire Smoke into the Northeastern United States

  • Released Monday, April 27, 2026
  • Last updated Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 11:18 AM EDT
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A slow zoom into North America reveals the dramatic long-range transport of smoke from the record-breaking 2023 Canadian wildfire season. Tan to deep red colors represent Smoke Intensity estimated by Black Carbon Column Mass Density from NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS-FP), developed by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO). From May 31 – July 7, 2023, smoke from wildfires in Canada is seen traveling thousands of miles, blanketing various regions of the United States and particularly impacting the eastern U.S. with record-breaking poor air quality.

In the spring and summer months, wildfires are a common occurrence in the boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere. Wildfires can have profound impacts on local ecological systems in addition to emitting aerosols and trace gases that are harmful to human health. When intense fires loft smoke above the atmospheric boundary layer, it can be transported thousands of miles across continents and oceans. An example of this occurred during the month of June 2023 and is visualized in the animation using aerosol information from the forward processing configuration of NASA’s Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS). GEOS combines information from NASA’s fleet of Earth-observing satellites with state-of-the-art modeling techniques to generate temporally and spatially consistent analyses and forecasts of the atmosphere.

The 2023 wildfire season was the most intense on record for Canada. While the Canadian wildfire season was record-breaking in its duration and intensity, the animation focuses on May 31 – July 7, 2023 — the period during which smoke transport most dramatically impacted air quality across the eastern United States. Combined with favorable meteorological conditions, this period resulted in record-breaking poor air quality in the northeastern United States during the month of June. Fires were prevalent in Alberta early in the wildfire season, as evidenced by the deep red colors in the animation representing thick smoke over western Canada during the first few days of June. By June 3, wildfires erupted in Quebec as well. The counterclockwise circulation of a quasi-stationary low-pressure system off the coast of Maine combined with the clockwise circulation of a high-pressure system over central Canada funneled smoke originating from wildfires in Alberta and Quebec into the northeastern United States. As wildfires persisted in Canada throughout the month of June, smoke continued to be prevalent across the continent.

A slow zoom into North America reveals the dramatic long-range transport of smoke from the record-breaking 2023 Canadian wildfire season. Colors ranging from tan to deep red represent Smoke Intensity estimated by Black Carbon Column Mass Density from NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS-FP), developed by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO), where deeper reds indicate denser smoke. From May 31 – July 7, 2023, smoke from wildfires in Canada is seen traveling thousands of miles, blanketing various regions of the United States and particularly impacting the eastern U.S. with record-breaking poor air quality.

This version does not include the colormap or timestamp.

No description available.

Colorbar of the 2023 Canadian wildfire smoke transport visualizations.
Colors ranging from transparent (no smoke) to tan to deep red (dense smoke) represent Smoke Intensity estimated by Black Carbon Column Mass Density (0–12 milligrams per square meter) from NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS-FP).

No description available.

This set provides colorbar and timestamp frames with transparency, designed as an overlay for compositing on top of the clean versions of the 2023 Canadian wildfire smoke transport visualizations.

Frames covering the period of May 31 – July 7, 2023 are provided at 5760x3240 resolution and are synced to work across all aspect ratios in this set. The colorbar represents Smoke Intensity estimated by Black Carbon Column Mass Density (0–12 milligrams per square meter) from NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS-FP), developed by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO).

Global View

No description available.

A global view of Smoke Intensity estimated by Black Carbon Column Mass Density from NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS-FP), developed by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO), reveals the remarkable scale of smoke transport from the record-breaking 2023 Canadian wildfire season. From May 31 – July 7, 2023, smoke from Canadian wildfires is seen traveling thousands of miles across continents and oceans, highlighting how wildfire smoke can impact air quality far beyond its source.

This set provides frames designed for NASA's Hyperwall display systems (5x3 aspect ratio) at 9600x3240 resolution, including colormap and timestamp.

No description available.

A global view of Smoke Intensity estimated by Black Carbon Column Mass Density from NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS-FP), developed by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO), reveals the remarkable scale of smoke transport from the record-breaking 2023 Canadian wildfire season. From May 31 – July 7, 2023, smoke from Canadian wildfires is seen traveling thousands of miles across continents and oceans, highlighting how wildfire smoke can impact air quality far beyond its source.

This set includes content in a 2:1 aspect ratio with frames/source at 7680x3840 resolution, without colormap or timestamp.

Credits

NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) and NASA's Global Modeling Assimilation Office (GMAO)

Datasets used

Note: While we identify the data sets used on this page, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This page was originally published on Monday, April 27, 2026.
This page was last updated on Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 11:18 AM EDT.