Monday, May 30, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z May 31, 2011


Western Canada/Alaska:
Dense smoke continues to spread southward from the large wildfire in
northeastern Alberta Province. The larger area of thin to moderately
dense smoke associated with this fire basically covers the same region
described this morning(see below). More fires producing visible smoke
were scattered across west central to east central Alaska and the east
central portion of the Yukon Province of northwestern Canada. A larger
batch of moderately dense smoke from several of these fires was located
over eastern and southeastern Alaska.

Pacific Northwest to the Southwest:
A region of aerosol seen earlier this morning has moved a bit farther to
the east and extends from the Pacific Northwest southward to northern
Arizona. This aerosol was analyzed as smoke in the graphical products
(see links below), however there is some uncertainty if this is remnant
smoke from the Alberta fires which has been wrapped around the western
end of the large trof moving across the Western and Central US or if it
is some other aerosol such as blowing dust which originated over Asia and
was transported a long distance across the Pacific aloft and into the US.

Northern Mexico/South Central and Central US:
The very large mass of mainly thin density smoke was still visible
across northern Mexico and the western Gulf of Mexico. The smoke extended
northward across Texas and over the Central Plains reaching at least as
far north as South Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Cloudiness did interfere
with determining the northward extent of this smoke. Some of the larger
fires over southeastern Colorado, eastern and southeastern Arizona,
western and northern Mexico, as well as fire activity farther to the
south in Mexico and Central America were likely contributing to this
large region of smoke. Some blowing dust from yesterday and today was
also adding to this aerosol covering this region. The source regions
for blowing dust today were a bit farther to the east and included White
Sands in south central New Mexico, along with numerous source points in
western and northwestern Texas, western Oklahoma, and western Kansas. The
blowing dust was generally moving to the northeast or north-northeast.

Southeast/Tennessee and Ohio Valley Region:
What is believed to be an area of remnant thin density smoke was visible
late this afternoon wrapping clockwise around a region of high pressure
The area of smoke, possibly mixed with other pollutants was analyzed
extending from northern Georgia and northern Alabama, northward over
Tennessee and Kentucky, and into Ohio and West Virginia. The smoke
contribution for this aerosol was likely primarily from the active fires
burning in southeastern Georgia.

JS

Earlier Today...
Western Canada/Alaska/Pacific Northwest:
A large area of light, remnant smoke can be seen from central/northern
Saskatchewan westward through Alberta/central British Columbia northward
into the Northwest Territories/Yukon and northern/eastern Alaska. A
smaller band of light smoke can be seen stretching to the south and
east through the Pacific Northwest and moving through Nevada. Most
of this smoke is coming from the wildfires that continue to burn in
northern Alberta where heavy, dense smoke can be seen through northern
and central Alberta into Saskatchewan. Further to the north through
Alaska and northwest Canada, wildfires that are burning through Alaska
and western Yukon are contributing to the remnant smoke as well as a
more moderately dense area in southeast Alaska. There is also a band of
moderate smoke moving southward from the Arctic through northern Alaska
and Yukon which could be from the Alberta fires or could be smoke and/or
other aerosols coming from near the Kamchatka Peninsula.


Central US/Northern Mexico/Western Gulf of Mexico:
A large area of light smoke can be seen in this morning's imagery from
northern Mexico through Texas and into the central Plains stretching as
far east as Illinois. This is from the continued fires through Mexico and
Central America as well as more recent fires through the southwest. There
is also a possibility that blowing dust from yesterday evening could
be mixing in with smoke as well today as surface winds continue to be
strong out of the south/southwest.

East Coast:
A patch of thin smoke could be seen off the Mid-Atlantic and New England
coast today as remnant smoke that is coming up through the Central Plains
from Mexico is getting rotate counter-clockwise around the High pressure
over the eastern US. Smoke could also be mixed with haze over this region
as well.

Belge


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.