Wednesday, August 10, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z August 10, 2011

Southern Plains:
Two areas of thin remnant smoke could be seen over eastern New Mexico
and west/northwest Texas today. Additional aerosol could be seen south
of the west Texas smoke but its composition could not be determined. This
remnant smoke is believed to be mostly from fires in southern New Mexico,
which were seen producing new smoke this morning.

East Coast:
A large area of unknown aerosol could be seen off the East Coast of the
Usfrom New England south to just north of the Bahamas as the aerosol
stretched northeast along a frontal boundary. In addition, moderately
dense to dense smoke from the Lateral West fire on the Virginia/North
Carolina border could be seen streaming eastward from its origin
mixing with the most dense part of the unknown aerosol plume east of
the Carolinas. The smoke actively coming from this fire this morning
had been directed due southward but started turning to the east by midday.

Western/Central Canada/North Central US:
A large area of aerosol believed to be thin remnant smoke from yesterday's
fires in northern Alberta/southeast Northwest Territories stretched
across northeast Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, much of Manitoba,
and reached extreme southwest Ontario.
A separate, more expansive area of aerosol extended from northern British
Columbia southeastward across central Alberta, central to southeast
Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, North Dakota, Minnesota, and finally
reached Wisconsin. Although it is not entirely certain of what this
aerosol is made up of or where it came from, given the expanse it covers
this aerosol could be remnant smoke from fires in Russia.

Sheffler


THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT
AREAS SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME
DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE
FIRE..TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST
ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF
THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO
THE SOURCE FIRE 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
ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT 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.