DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z May 18, 2010
Currently: Northern and Central Plains/South Central to Southeastern Canada: A very large area of thin density aerosols possibly partially composed of thin density smoke can be seen this morning in GOES-West visible imagery with the favorable low sun angle across portions of the Central and Northern Plains and over a good chunk of southern Canada from Saskatchewan Province to the southern portion of Quebec Province. Any smoke present in this very large area would most likely have originated from the large number of fires detected daily across areas of south central Canada and the Northern Plains. It is definitely not certain how much of this aerosol is composed of smoke or how extensive the area actually encompasses, though the HMS graphics(see web addresses below) are indicating smoke. Canadian Maritimes/Northwestern Atlantic: A thin ribbon of aerosol of unknown origin and composition extended from the Gulf of St Lawrence southeastward over the far northwestern Atlantic. 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