DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z February 27, 2011
Gulf of Mexico: A large area of light aerosol is present extending from the Bay of Campeche northward into the northwestern and even north central Gulf of Mexico. Moderate density aerosol is located over the western Gulf of Mexico and inland over eastern Mexico. Some of the lighter surrounding aerosol appears to have moved close to or over coastal areas of southern and southeastern Texas as well as southern Louisiana. This aerosol is believed to be composed of a combination of smoke from the gas flares in the Bay of Campeche along with smoke from seasonal burning beginning over Mexico and Central America and possibly other pollutants. Because of the uncertainty, this aerosol was not depicted as smoke on the websites listed below. Southeastern US: Another day of significant burning occurred across the Southeastern US with many smoke plumes visible in satellite imagery especially in the region stretching from southern Mississippi eastward over southern and central Alabama, southern and central Georgia, the Florida panhandle, and south central South Carolina. The majority of the smoke plumes were moving off to the northeast. Colorado: An area of mainly thin density blowing dust emanated from sources in south central Colorado and moved to the east-northeast during the late afternoon and early evening reaching as far east as the Colorado-Kansas border by sunset. JS 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