Saturday, May 29, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z May 29, 2010

Eastern U.S.:
The eastern half of the U.S. is blanketed in remnant smoke from the
numerous fires that have been burning in eastern Canada over the past
week.

Alaska/Yukon/Northwest Territories:
Numerous large wildfires over Alaska were combining to produce a rather
large smoke plume with embedded areas of moderate to extremely dense smoke
over a good portion of Alaska, the Yukon and far northwest portions of
the Northwest Territories.

Gulf of Mexico through the Southern and Central Plains:
A large area of aerosols with unknown origin covers a large portion of
the Gulf of Mexico and then extends northwest through Texas, Oklahoma,
Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. It is believed that at least some of
these aerosols contain some remnant smoke from fire activity over Mexico
and possibly also from fire activity over Canada.

MS

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.