DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1830Z May 15, 2010

North Central US/Southern Canada:
A large area of thin remnant smoke could be seen this morning covering
parts of North Dakota, Minnesota, Lake Superior, and south central
Canada. This is likely remnant smoke from fires the past few days in
central Saskatchewan and Manitoba. A little further east, a light aerosol
could be seen obscured by some clouds over eastern Ontario and central
Quebec but it is unknown if remnant smoke traveled this far or if it is
some other unknown aerosol.

Gulf of Mexico:
Residual smoke from Mexican/Central American fires is seen over the Bay
of Campeche and along the western portion of the Gulf of Mexico reaching
southern Texas. However, clouds in the area prevents determining the
full extent of the smoke.

Eastern US:
An swath of aerosol, likely composed of a majority of residual smoke from
the Central American or southeastern US fires, stretches along a frontal
boundary from Tennessee/Kentucky/Alabama to North Carolina and eastward
off the coast where it appears to become more of a moderate density. Also
just to the north of this cold front over parts of Virginia, the Delmarva
Peninsula, and just off the coast a light aerosol can be seen. It is
not known at this time if this is remnant smoke or some other aerosol.

Montana/Alberta/Saskatchewan:
A small area of thin remnant smoke, likely from fires in Idaho and
Montana, could be seen briefly this morning crossing the US border into
southeast Alberta and southwest Saskatchewan.

Sheffler

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.