Tuesday, May 15, 2007

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z May 15, 2007

Southeastern US/Southern US/Tennessee and Ohio Valley Regions/Gulf
of Mexico:
Moderately dense to dense smoke close to the source points of the active
fires burning in southern Georgia and northern Florida initially appeared
to be moving to the west-southwest very early this morning. However,
by late morning winds had shifted and the smoke was being blown more in
a west-northwest direction. This more concentrated region of smoke was
located over northern Florida, southern and southwestern Georgia, and
possibly southeastern Alabama. Farther away from the fires, residual
light smoke could be seen on satellite imagery across the southern
third of Florida extending westward to the central Gulf of Mexico. A
thicker batch of at least moderately dense smoke was present within this
region extending from the central Gulf of Mexico northward into southern
Louisiana. Very early morning visible imagery with the favorable low sun
angle also showed a hazy region stretching from the Gulf coast region of
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama northward and northeastward across
eastern Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and possibly as far as the OH/WV/PA
border region. This hazy area likely is composed of remnant thin smoke
from the GA/FL fires along with other atmospheric pollutants. Farther
to the west, some haze is also noted over the eastern half of Texas,
southeastern Oklahoma, and central and western Arkansas. Because
residual thin smoke was detected in this region the past several days,
it is still possible that some leftover very thin smoke is still present
here as well mixed with other pollutants.

Arizona:
Thin to moderately dense smoke was partly visible through high cloudiness
extending to the east and southeast of a fire located close to the border
of Gila and Coconino Counties in central Arizona.

Western US and north Central US/Western and Central Canada/Alaska:
Early morning visible imagery with the favorable low sun angle for
viewing detection showed very large batches of haze present which has
been occurring for the past several days. The source and composition
of these unusually large areas of haze is unknown. It is possible that
these particles suspended aloft have traveled extremely large distances
over a number of days. One long narrow swath of this haze stretched
from central California to northern New Mexico. More haze was detected
in an enormous region covering the area from northern Nevada to western
Nebraska then extending northward to northern states from Montana to
northwestern Minnesota. The very large region of haze then extended to
the northwest across south central Canada to western Canada. Additional
haze was also noted in a swath across the north central portion of Alaska
extending into the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

JS

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.