Wednesday, April 21, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z April 22, 2010

Northern Gulf of Mexico:
A hot spot and smoke plume can be seen in satellite imagery from the oil
rig explosion and fire in the northern Gulf of Mexico off the southeastern
Louisiana coast. The thin to locally moderately dense smoke plume is
fanning out as it moves in a southeasterly direction.

South Central Canada/Northern and Central Plains/Great Lakes Region/Ohio
Valley:
GOES visible imagery this afternoon continued to show an area of
aerosol stretching from Saskatchewan Province in south central Canada
southeastward across eastern Montana and the Dakotas to the Central Plains
and the Upper to Middle Mississippi Valley. The aerosol also appeared
to extend farther to the east and southeast to possibly as far as the
Ohio Valley. It is believed that leftover smoke from the large number of
daily fires burning across south central Canada, the Dakotas, and western
Minnesota are responsible for at least a portion of this aerosol. More
fires producing visible smoke in satellite imagery were analyzed again
today across concentrated across the same general region of south central
Canada, North Dakota, eastern South Dakota, and western Minnesota.

Southwestern US:
Strong southerly and southwesterly winds around a strong area of low
pressure were blowing across southern California, Arizona, and New
Mexico. It is likely that at least some blowing dust was being kicked up
by these winds, although visible satellite imagery did not show anything
definite through sunset. Cloudiness across the region did hinder dust
detection in satellite imagery.

JS


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.