Wednesday, June 24, 2009

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z June 25, 2009

Canada:
A large smoke plume from yesterday's far W Quebec and NE Ontario
fires continues to track ahead of frontal band of thunderstorms across
C Quebec.  This thin to moderately dense plume extends from Hamilton
Inlet of Labrador westward across S Labrador reaches the corner in
the Quebec/Labrador boarder then turns SW across C Quebec toward the
St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Trois-Rivieres.   Numerous new
and old fires continue to pump out copious amounts of smoke across
nearly all of N Ontario, C Quebec and S Labrador...please see link below.
Additionally, the smoke is mixed with SO2 which is described in further
detail below within SO2 section

Lower Mississippi and Red River Valleys:
Remnant thin smoke from numerous agricultural fires from yesterday's
fires in the MO Bootheel and across AR/LA can be seen across E Texas and
S and Central Louisiana...the smoke is thin to moderate in consistency
but is mixed with haze/high humidity as well. Today's smoke from similar
fires in MO/AR is also moving SE and mixing with hazy conditions across
the Mississippi River Valley across AR...and eventually merges with area
over TX/LA.

SO2:
A large area of SO2 from the Sarychev Peak eruption can be seen in two
lines that continue to stretch out E-W but also become thicker as the
concentration increases along this convergence/stretching boundary.
The most dense areas are around 50km wide from the Southern Yukon/NW
Territories boundary east across to Great Slave Lake, then SEward across
W Lake Athabasca into central Saskatchewan...Here the width of the line
thins to about 20km before it balls up into a small shortwave vortex that
is centered over Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg.  Since the cyclone balls
the SO2 up the string of SO2, then extends out of the northern portion
of the cyclone across N Ontario toward James Bay. This string is mixed
well with the smoke of 5-6 fires across NW Ontario... but the SO2 is much
higher elevated (along tropopause or possibly even low stratospheric)
than the smoke.

Haze/Pollution:
Today was a good day to detect moderately dense haze and pollution
conditions across E MI/OH/W KY into the Lower Mississippi River area  As
well as in NC/SC/GA and S AL/W FL.  In fact, some power plants/factories'
plumes could be seen distinctly with slightly higher concentrations...and
can be picked up well as the source point remained stationary though the
rest of the thinner haze passed by.  See N GA and SW KY for best examples.
Also smog/haze from Chicago can be seen well only due to the fact that
west winds blew the haze over the dark background of S Lake Michigan.

Gallina

More information on additional areas of smoke associated with these
fires and others can be found at the locations listed below.

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.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/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.