Saturday, February 19, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z February 20, 2011

Middle Atlantic Region:
A number of significant smoke plumes were observed from Maryland southward
across Virginia and North Carolina as very strong northwesterly winds
fanned many wildfires.

Southeastern US:
The smoke which was observed this morning in a band extending from well
offshore of the Southeastern US over the Atlantic inland across a good
portion of the Florida peninsula and over the eastern Gulf of Mexico was
still visible through the day as it drifted farther to the south. This
large mass of smoke possibly combined with other aerosols was believed to
be from the many daily fires burning across the Southeastern US during the
past several days. During the day today, once again many fires producing
visible smoke were analyzed across the Southeast, especially over the
Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Cloudiness did interfere with smoke
detection in satellite imagery, particularly in areas farther to the
west from western Georgia to Texas and the south central Plains region.

Southwestern US:
Several streaks of thin density blowing dust/sand were visible late
this afternoon from sources in northern Mexico just south of the Arizona
and New Mexico border as well as spots farther to the northeast across
southwestern and south central New Mexico including White Sands. The
dust/sand plumes were moving off to the northeast.

JS

Earlier this Morning...
Gulf of Mexico:
Several areas of thin remnant smoke, which may be mixed with other
aerosols, are seen over the Gulf of Mexico today. The main area is moving
across the central Gulf of Mexico spreading westward with a small area
seen beneath clouds trailing behind. Given the atmospheric wind flow over
the Gulf the past day or so, this smoke appears to have have originated
from a combination of recent fires in the southeast US and Cuba. Remnant
smoke is also present along the southern Texas coast lifting northward
and probably originated from recent fires in Mexico.

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. THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN
GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov

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.