Tuesday, August 24, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1515Z August 24, 2010

West/Central Canada, North/Central US:
Light, remnant smoke from the previous days wildfires in British Columbia
could be seen from north/central Canada through north/central US. Areas
effected include northwest Nunavut extending south-southeast through
eastern Alberta, all of Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, Western Ontario
and into north/central US including eastern Montana, North Dakota, South
Dakota, extreme northern Nebraska, and Minnesota. Cloud cover over much
of British Columbia makes detection of previous days wildfires and full
extent of smoke difficult with satellite imagery.

Coastal NW US:
Light smoke from the Oak Flat and Scott Mountain fires in Oregon is moving
SSW off the coast of Oregon extending to 127W. Note the HMS JPG/GIS images
do not reflect the true extent of the smoke due to system limitations.

Alaska:
A small area of aerosols believed to be light smoke from fires burning
in central Alaska can be seen moving south toward the Wrangell Mountains.

Earle

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.