Sunday, June 6, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z June 7, 2010

Alaska/Canada/Great Lakes:
An expansive area of light to moderate smoke extended from the central
Northwest Territories southeast to the northern Plains and northern
Great Lakes.  The densest portion of the plume appeared to cover a
large portion of Manitoba and the western part of Hudson Bay.  The smoke
plume over the Yukon and Alaska was not as evident as earlier today but
still individual smoke plumes were evident from their respective fires,
particularly the large fire over the central Yukon that featured a very
dense smoke plume that was drifting into northeastern Alaska.  The source
for the large smoke plume continues to be persistent fire activity over
northern Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Alaska.

Gulf of Mexico/Texas/Louisiana:
A large area of mostly thin smoke covered the western Gulf of Mexico
and has also pushed inland into portions of eastern Texas and northwest
Louisiana.  The source for this smoke is believed to be the large number
of agricultural fires that continue over Mexico and Central America.
Further to the west, this evenings satellite imagery revealed aerosol
of unknown source and composition covering most of Texas and Oklahoma.
It is possible that some of this aerosol may be remnant smoke from either
the fire activity over Mexico/Central America or possibly from yesterdays
fire activity over New Mexico.

Arizona:
An area of what is believed to be thin smoke from yesterdays and todays
fire activity over southeastern New Mexico was drifting northwest
through the Rim Country of Arizona.  It is also possible that some
remnant blowing dust may be mixed in with this area of smoke.

Hanna

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.