Monday March 22, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z March 23, 2010

Midwest to Southern Plains:
Thin to moderately dense smoke was observed this morning stretching
from the southern end of Lake Michigan to the Gulf coast. The remnant
smoke is likely the same that was analyzed in yesterday's fire/smoke
analysis over the Northern Plains, with the origin possibly being from
numerous agricultural fires in that region. The moderately dense areas
of the remnant smoke were seen over north Illinois/east Missouri and
over southeast Oklahoma/east Texas/southwest Louisiana. However, most
of this smoke could not be discerned in the evening satellite imagery,
with the exception of some thin smoke across Illinois, northwest Indiana,
and southwest Michigan.

Texas Coast:
A large fire burning along the Texas coast today between Galveston and
Port Arthur created a long plume of moderately dense to dense smoke that
stretched 160 miles to the southeast.

California/Southern Nevada:
A band of unknown aerosols/haze was seen moving southward through central
California/southern Nevada this evening. The band of haze is associated
with a cold front sweeping through the region and allowed the haze to be
most dense at the southern end of the Central CA Valley. The GASP product
showed the haze extremely well this evening. Some thin smoke was also
present further north between Sacramento and San Francisco, believed to
be from agricultural burning that was going on in the northern part of
the state.

-Sheffler


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.