Friday, April 22, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z April 23, 2011

Western Gulf of Mexico into the South Central United States:
A large area of light to moderately dense smoke was seen over a large
portion of the Western Gulf of Mexico and extending north through
much of eastern Texas and into eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas.
The northeastward extent of the smoke was difficult to detect this
evening due to widespread cloud cover over the South Central States.
The source of this smoke is likely the large number of agricultural
fires over central Mexico and also with the recent wildfire activity
over northern Mexico.

Southern New Mexico:
An area of blowing dust originating from White Sands, New Mexico was
lifting northeast into portions of Lincoln county in south central
New Mexico.

Western Texas:
An area of blowing dust that appears to be originating from portions of
western Andrews county was lifting rapidly northeast towards the Wichita
Falls area.

Pacific Northwest/Southwestern Canada:
An area of aerosol, believed to be dust, was seen this evening over
portions of the Pacific northwest and Southwestern Canada.  The source
region for this dust is believed to be from Eastern Asia.

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.