DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1830Z April 17, 2010

Southeast US:
Thin to moderately dense residual smoke could be seen this morning over
parts of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina stretching eastward
along a frontal boundary across the western Atlantic. Another area of
thin smoke with embedded moderate densities had become separated over
north Louisiana/south Arkansas. The leftover smoke is believed to be
from fires in the southeastern US and TN valley over the past day or two.

South Central Canada/Northern Great Plains to Ohio Valley:
A plume of aerosols likely to contain remnant smoke was seen stretching
from northern Saskatchewan/northern Manitoba southeastward into the North
Central US and reaching as far as western Ohio. The overall composition
of the plume, especially in central Canada is unknown,as well as the
origin. But given the numerous fires that were identified yesterday
over the Northern Plains and South Central Canada, and the fact that
smoke is most dense just downstream of those regions, it is believed
smoke makes up a good portion of the aerosol composition. Moderately
dense smoke covered from western Ontario across Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Illinois, southwest Michigan, Indiana, and northwest Ohio with dense
smoke over southern Lake Michigan.

-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.