DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1545Z April 1, 2012
Smoke: Mississippi River Valley: A very large area of remnant smoke from yesterday's numerous agricultural fires across the US Central Plains and Mississippi River Valley can be seen with Goes-West at low sun angle due to scattering that is typical in early morning. The sun-satellite geometry is not conducive to see this thin of smoke using Goes-East so determining the exact eastern edge around E TN/MS/AL is very difficult. The western boundary is defined and can be seen covering all of MO, IA, IL and portions of northern AR moving into Western KY and W TN...this is all moving generally eastward. Wind shift across IA shows smoke moving NW across far NW IA into S MN, NE SD and across central ND to around the eastern portions of Lake Sakakawea. At this point contribution from dust/sand aerosols(see below) make it difficult to fully differentiate. Dust/Sand: Montana: Strong outflow or downsloping winds are surging across MT at this time kicking up thin to moderately dense dust and sand that maximizes in a N-S arc from Glasgow to Miles City to Broadus. Ahead of this arc additional sands/dust likely from last night's higher winds or other source regions from the Inner Mountain West is seen moving NE across E MT into far NW ND and SE Saskatchewan. Based on sfc winds and IR/WV loop, would assume this dust/sand is well aloft in lower to mid-troposphere. SW US/NW Mexico: Strong winds at the base ahead of cold front/base of midlevel trof has kicked up soils/dust/sand across S California (Salton Sea area) and sandy deserts surrounding the Colorado River. The dust/sand is thin in density and is moving SSE across the northern portion of the Sea of Cortez as far as Tiburon Island and Eastern Coast of Sonora. Gallina 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