Wednesday, July 28, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z July 28, 2010

Northwest Territories/Nunavut/Saskatchewan/Manitoba/Northern US region:
The wildfires in Saskatchewan and southeast Northwest Territory continue
to produce just a tremendous amount of smoke throughout Canada.  Using
GOES-11 morning imagery and early afternoon GOES-13 imagery, dense smoke
spreads south from southern Northwest Territory through eastern Alberta,
around most of Saskatchewan, southern Ontario and into northern North
Dakota and Minnesota.  Moderately dense smoke spreads even farther north
into the Northwest Territory, south into the northern US and east into
northern Manitoba and the Hudson Bay region.  A pocket of dense smoke lies
across southern Nunavut south into northern Manitoba with another pocket
extending across the Hudson Bay.  Lighter smoke is in/around the region.

British Columbia/Yukon Territory:
The wildfire burning in northwest British Columbia continues to produce
an area of moderately dense to dense smoke moving northwest with northern
sections reaching south Yukon Territory.

J Kibler

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.