Tuesday, September 8, 2009

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0000Z September 9, 2009

Upper Great Lakes/Michigan:
Residual smoke from fires in BC over the last week has become very
faint and is only seen due to the high sun angles using GOES-EAST.
An area of smoke can be seen ahead of frontal storms and cirrus debris
from N WI across W Lake Superior clipping the eastern MN arrowhead into
Ontario, then bends back Seward across the central lake toward the E
UP of Michigan.  A few smoke plumes/puffs from fires across the E UP,
today, can be seen within this larger area of faint haze moving NW.
A small pocket of this hazy with some thin smoke can be seen moving due
west across from the neck of Ontario into E and central LP of MI...near
the developing midlevel cumulus clouds.

Upper Miss. River Valley:
Residual smoke from fires in BC over the last week is also very faint
and mixed with haze over SW MN, IA and along the Mississippi River in
IL toward STL.  This area is moving NW along the river into central IA
before moving due N under influence from the frontal system tracking
across S Manitoba/MN.

Nevada/Utah/Arizona:
Thin remnant smoke from the yesterday's output from the Station fire
continues to drift NEward slowly over the S tip of NV (from the CA
boarder to the UT/AZ boarder.  The smoke is particularly concentrated
along from Lake Meade NE to the UT/AZ boarder.

Gallina

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.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/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

 


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.