Sunday, July 4, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0430Z July 05, 2010

Alaska:
The smoke observed this evening over Alaska was associated with and still
attached to active fires burning mainly over northwest Alaska. Please
see the graphic depictions at the web addresses below.

Northwest into Central Canada:
A large area of residual smoke from fires in northern Saskatchewan
and Manitoba has recirculated around a large cyclonic storm system and
extended from the Arctic Coast, including Victoria and Banks Islands, down
through western Northwest Territory and then curling across northern and
central Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, just reaching the western
edge of Hudson Bay. The smoke over the prairie provinces was mainly
moving east and was moderately dense to dense.

Eastern Canada:
An area of light smoke was seen on the edge of the GOES-East satellite
imagery over northern Quebec extending across Baffin Island and the
Davis Straight. This is likely residual smoke from the fires in central
Canada over the past several days. A separate, narrow patch of thin smoke
extended from east to west across much of the Gulf of St Lawrence just
reaching western Island of Newfoundland.

Central and Eastern Great Lakes/Ohio and Tennessee Valleys:
A broad area of aerosol was seen over this region under a stagnant,
hot air mass. Much of this aerosol is though to be haze pollution but
there is likely some residual smoke mixed in.

Ruminski


  Smoke primarily from fires over northern Saskatchewan Province
  in west Central Canada stretched across a good portion of central
  Canada. Details concerning the smoke density and overall coverage
  though could not be determined due to widespread cloudiness over some
  of this region.



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.