Extensive forest fire activities occurred across the border in Russia, particularly east of Lake Baikal between the Amur and Lena rivers in May 2003. These forest fires released large amounts of particulates and gases into the atmosphere, resulting in adverse effects on regional air quality and the global radiation budget. Smoke pollution from the Russian fires near Lake Baikal was transported to Korea through Mongolia and eastern China. On 20 May 2003, a number of large fires were burning in eastern Russian, producing a thick, widespread pall of smoke over much of Northeast Asia. In this study, separation technique was used for aerosol retrieval application with imagery from MODIS aboard TERRA satellites. MODIS true-color image shows the location of fires and the grayish color of the smoke plumes over Northeast Asia. Aerosol optical thckness (AOT) retrieved from the MODIS data were compared with fire hot spots, ground-based radiation data and TOMS -based aerosol index data. Large AOT, 2.0-5.0 was observed on 20 May 2003 over Korea due to the influence of the long range transport of smoke aerosol plume from the Russian fires, while surface observed fine mode of aerosol size distribution increased.