Thursday, July 29, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0315Z July 30, 2010

Yukon Territory/Northwest Territories/British
Columbia/Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba/Ontario/Great Lakes States:

A large and expansive moderate to dense smoke plume covered a large
section of western and central Canada and extended into the northern
Great Lakes states of the United States.  The plume was oriented from the
Yukon Territory and central and northern British Columbia extending east
southeast through the southern portions of the Northwest Territories,
northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, most of Manitoba, western
Ontario and into the northern Great Lakes states.  The large area of
smoke appears to have originated from three areas of concentrated fire
activity. Those areas being northern Saskatchewan and the southeastern
portions of the Northwest Territories, northwestern British Columbia
and the southern Yukon Territory and over central British Columbia.
Widespread cloud cover did hinder the smoke analysis this evening so
there is some uncertainty with areal coverage of smoke and smoke density.

Pleas see website below for graphical depictions of the smoke plumes
associated with several large wildfires over California.

Hanna

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.