Tuesday, July 6, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z July 07, 2010

Alaska:
Cloudiness obscured most of the smoke seen this morning over northern
Alaska, but a thin patch of smoke that had drifted southwest across
extreme eastern Russia.

Northern and Central Canada:
A large area remnant of smoke from fires in northern Saskatchewan and
Manitoba continues to be present over parts of north and central Canada,as
well as over much of Hudson Bay. While some smoke was still seen this
evening over northern Nunavut, the bulk was visible over Alberta,
southern Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, and into parts of Montana
and North Dakota. In addition, another separate area of smoke with some
of moderate density embedded stretched from northwest Lake Superior to
eastern Nunavut.

Lower Great Lakes/Ohio & Tennessee Valleys/Mid-Atlantic Region/Northeast:
A broad area of optically thick aerosol believed to be mostly ozone
continues to be seen circulating clockwise over this region under
a persistent upper level ridge axis.  Earlier in the week some of
this aerosol was analyzed as smoke from fires in Canada, so there is a
possibility that there still may be some very thin residual smoke trapped
under the stagnant ridge axis and mixed in. The aerosols stretched from
MO/IL to just off the Mid-Atlantic coast and from northwast GA/north AL
to southeast Ontario/south Quebec.

Texas:
An area of unknown aerosol was seen this evening over central TX and
along the Gulf of Mexico coast near Houston. The aerosol was moving
slowly westward.

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.