Thursday, July 2, 2009

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z July 2, 2009

Southern Plains to Southeast US:
Thin to moderately dense smoke and haze covered parts of Oklahoma,
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana with thin smoke also stretching eastward across
Mississippi and Alabama to southwest Georgia. A thin haze can then be seen
just off the Southeast coast stretching northeastward along a frontal
boundary to just east of the Mid-Atlantic region. Much of the smoke
seen over the southern US was leftover from the numerous fires that were
burning during the past two days across Kansas and Oklahoma. Additionally,
an area of smoke that had moved southeast yesterday from Colorado/Utah
had moved into west Texas and the Texas panhandle.

Southwest Canada:
Two separate bands of SO2 stretched to the east from the Pacific Ocean
across central British Columbia, central and central Alberta, central
Saskatchewan, and western Manitoba.  Both bands were roughly 100-125 km
wide as of this morning's GOES—11 imagery.

Northern Plains/Midwest/South Central Canada:
A light haze was seen stretching along the western edge of an upper level
trough from southern Manitoba and southeast Saskatchewan southward across
eastern North and South Dakota, western Minnesota, western Iowa, eastern
Nebraska, and Missouri. It is believed this haze is mostly composed
of remnant SO2 that has migrated southward from Canada after making
it over the top of the upper level ridge in place over the western US,
though some other aerosols may also be mixed in.

Northeast Canada:
A large area of unknown aerosols was positioned from northern Hudson
Bay across eastern Nunavut and extreme northern Quebec before reaching
the Labrador Sea.

Alaska:
Thin to moderate smoke was seen over south central Alaska. Most of this
smoke was remnant from previous fires but several active fires in the
area are also adding additional smoke to the mixture. SO2 from volcanic
activity covers most of the western half of the state with the most
concentrated SO2 over southwest Alaska, the Aleutians, and the Gulf of
Alaska. A thin band of SO2 was also still present over the border between
Alaska and the Yukon Territory, with the band stretching southeastward
into northwest British Columbia.

Sheffler



More information on the areas of smoke described above as well as 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.