DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z July 18, 2009
Alaska/Canada/North Central US: Moderately dense to dense smoke continues to emanate from a number of fires burning across portions of Alaska and the Yukon province of northwestern Canada. The smoke from these fires has also spread a great distance over a number of days and was visible across a large portion of central Canada as well as the north central US. Satellite data also indicates the possible presence of SO2 from the Sarychev volcano in Kamchatka embedded within the smoke area over portions of eastern Alaska, northwestern Canada, and north central Canada. Trajectories are likely spreading the SO2 along with the smoke southward into south central Canada and the north central US. GOES-Visible imagery just prior to sunset early this evening still showed a narrow but rather dense aerosol extending from north central Canada southward all the way to western Minnesota and Iowa. It is likely that this very long ribbon of aerosol is composed of both smoke and SO2, but it is not known which one is the dominant type. The aerosol likely extends farther to the east across the Great Lakes region and possibly the Ohio Valley and Northeast, but extensive cloudiness is hindering detection in satellite imagery. Southern Florida/Caribbean/Bahamas/Southeastern Gulf of Mexico: A large area of what appears to be leftover blowing dust/sand transported across the Atlantic from the Sahara in Africa was still visible early this evening and had moved a bit farther to the west. It now covers the southern Gulf of Mexico including the eastern Bay of Campeche, the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and even as far northwest as extreme southern Florida and the Florida Keys. JS More information on the areas of smoke described above as well as others can be found at the locations listed below. THE FORMAT OF THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS BEING MODIFIED. IT WILL NO LONGER DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS PLUMES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES. THESE PLUMES ARE DEPICTED IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE: JPEG: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/hms.html GIS: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm KML: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html THIS TEXT PRODUCT WILL CONTINUE TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE WHICH HAVE BECOME DETACHED FROM AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. IT WILL ALSO STILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOWING DUST. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov