Saturday, May 28, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0430Z May 29, 2011

Western Canada:
A large area of moderate to extremely dense smoke covered most of
the southern portion of Alberta and likely extended into portions of
southeastern British Columbia.  The source of this smoke continued to be
the large wildfires occurring over northeastern Alberta.  The southern
extent of this smoke was difficult to analyze due to widespread cloud
cover over the region.

East US Coast:
This evenings satellite imagery indicated an area of remnant light smoke
from just offshore the Carolinas and extending northeast into portions
of New England.  The source region of this smoke was likely partially
from a wildfire over eastern North Carolina and also from the large
number of fires over Mexico.

Northern Mexico/Southern Plains/Western Gulf of Mexico:
A large area of remnant smoke of which some was moderate density is
apparent across a large portion of Mexico and extending northeast
through Oklahoma and into the Mid Mississippi Valley.  The majority of
this remnant smoke has come from the fires in northwestern Mexico. It
is believed that some airborne dust may also be mixed in with the smoke.

Western/Northern US:
An aerosol plume that is believed to be partially composed of dust from
Asia and also from smoke from the wildfires over northern Alberta can
be seen this evening stretching from just off the Washington and Oregon
coast and extending eastward towards the Dakotas.

Southwestern United States:
Several areas of blowing dust were noted over the southwestern United
States.  Those particular areas were over southern California and
extending towards the northern Gulf of California, over northeastern
Arizona, White Sands New Mexico and over portions of West Central Texas.

Hanna

THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT
AREAS SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME
DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE
FIRE..TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST
ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF
THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO
THE SOURCE FIRE 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
ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT 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.