NASA satellites Terra and Aqua on Wednesday registered some 376 hotspots from wildfires across Russia, according to the ScanEx website where information from the satellites are sent.
On August 3, The Aqua satellite, equipped with an atmospheric infrared sounder, and Terra, equipped with a thermal emission and reflection radiometer, identified 636 forest fires in Russia.
Ryazan region is one of the worst fire-damaged with 83 hotspots across its territory, according to the website.
On the other hand, due to the smog across several Russian regions, the satellites have shown only 5 hotspots in Nizhny Novgorod region, which is among the most damaged ones.
A scorching heat wave has gripped much of European Russia since mid-June, sparking wildfires and causing the worst drought in decades.
Moscow and a dozen other cities have been wrapped in a thick layer of smog. Health experts say pollution levels are so high that breathing has become as dangerous as smoking several packs of cigarettes a day.
At least 40 people have died and over 2,000 have been left homeless by fires which have swept across the central part of European Russia. The wildfires have been sparked by temperatures up to and above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
MOSCOW, August 4 (RIA Novosti)
