Saturday, May 1, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0045Z May 2, 2010

ADDENDUM:

Northern Mexico:
Strong winds have kicked up an area of blowing dust that is originating
in northern Mexico about 500 km south of the Big Bend area of Texas. This
blowing dust was moving quickly to the northeast toward far south Texas
by sunset.

New England/Mid Atlantic:
Large area of light aerosols of unknown origin and composition was moving
southeastward across New England and the Mid Atlantic states and into
the Atlantic.
There is some evidence to suggest that this area could be residual smoke
but the origin is not clear.

Western Gulf of Mexico/Texas/Louisiana/Arkansas/Mississippi:
Light to isolated moderate smoke from fires in Mexico covered much of the
western Gulf and Bay of Campeche and stretched northward across eastern
Texas, southern Arkansas, all of Louisiana and much of Mississippi.

Eastern Gulf of Mexico:
An area of aerosols was also pushing north across the eastern Gulf.
This area was slightly less dense than that in the western Gulf and can
be traced southeastward into the Caribbean.  The predominant aerosol is
likely to be African dust.

Georgia/South Carolina:
A fire that erupted in the early afternoon in Liberty County, Georgia,
resulted in a cloud of light smoke that moved northeastward along the
coast, reaching Berkeley County, South Carolina by sunset.

Coastal California/Baja California:
An area of aerosols of unknown origin and composition was observed moving
south along the West coast from central California to Baja California.

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.