DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z March 28, 2016
SMOKE: Nebraska/Iowa Border: A small patch of smoke could be seen moving eastward across southeast Nebraska towards the Iowa border. This smoke appears to have come from fires in central and eastern Nebraska yesterday. Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche: With much of the Gulf of Mexico covered by broken cloud cover, some smoke could be seen across the central and western Gulf of Mexico along with within the Bay of Campeche. This remnant thin smoke is mostly from fires in Mexico and other nearby countries of Central America. DUST: Central and Northern Plains/Midwest/Great Lakes: An area of an elevated aerosol was observed over the Central and Northern Plains. It is difficult to determine its full extent due to the diffuse nature of the aerosol and clouds obscuring parts of the Midwest and exiting the Intermountain West though. The aerosol is thought to be elevated dust particles, possibly originating from Asia based on back trajectories of aerosol models. It stretches approximately from north Arkansas/north Oklahoma northward to the Dakotas/western and central Minnesota, and across Lake Superior over southern Ontario. UNKNOWN AEROSOL: Texas/Oklahoma: An aerosol is observed over parts of Oklahoma southward and southeastward across Texas. This aerosol could be elevated dust or remnant smoke or a mix of the two. This aerosol extended into the far northwest Gulf of Mexico where some of the aerosol was analyzed as remnant smoke yesterday. Sheffler THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF 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.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/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