DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z February 27, 2011

Gulf of Mexico:
A large area of light aerosol is present extending from the Bay of
Campeche northward into the northwestern and even north central Gulf
of Mexico. Moderate density aerosol is located over the western Gulf of
Mexico and inland over eastern Mexico. Some of the lighter surrounding
aerosol appears to have moved close to or over coastal areas of southern
and southeastern Texas as well as southern Louisiana. This aerosol is
believed to be composed of a combination of smoke from the gas flares
in the Bay of Campeche along with smoke from seasonal burning beginning
over Mexico and Central America and possibly other pollutants. Because of
the uncertainty, this aerosol was not depicted as smoke on the websites
listed below.

Southeastern US:
Another day of significant burning occurred across the Southeastern US
with many smoke plumes visible in satellite imagery especially in the
region stretching from southern Mississippi eastward over southern and
central Alabama, southern and central Georgia, the Florida panhandle,
and south central South Carolina. The majority of the smoke plumes were
moving off to the northeast.

Colorado:
An area of mainly thin density blowing dust emanated from sources in
south central Colorado and moved to the east-northeast during the late
afternoon and early evening reaching as far east as the Colorado-Kansas
border by sunset.

JS


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. THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN
GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov

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.