Saturday March 20, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z March 21, 2010

Middle Atlantic Region/Northeast/Offshore over western Atlantic:
The large area of aerosol of rather thin density but unknown origin and
composition which was detected in GOES-East visible imagery this morning
was still seen late this afternoon extending from the Middle Atlantic
coast to the east-northeast and well offshore of the Middle Atlantic
and Northeastern US. Some of this aerosol was also noted inland across
portions of easter North Carolina, eastern Virginia, eastern Maryland,
and Delaware. However, the true extent of the aerosol inland was not
known since the lack of contrast between the land surface and the
aerosol makes it more difficult to detect than it is when it's over
water. While the origin and composition of the aerosol is not known,
it is possible that some remnant leftover smoke from the large number
of daily seasonal fires burning over the South Central and Southeastern
states may be contributing to it.

Elsewhere...Clouds covered the South Central US today greatly limiting any
fire and smoke detection in satellite imagery. Numerous fires along with
more than 2 dozen smoke plumes were detected across the Southeast. For
additional graphical information on these plumes please refer to the
web links below.

JS


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.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

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.