DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1745Z August 24, 2011
Montana/Wyoming through Northern/Central Plains to Midwest/Great Lakes region: An expansive area of aerosol composed of a mixture of remnant smoke and elevated dust particles from eastern Montana covered much of the northern US this morning. The mixture stretched from Montana/Wyoming southeastward as far as Oklahoma/northeast Texas/Arkansas and as far east as the western Great Lakes, Ohio, and Kentucky. The remnant smoke that makes up a large part of this aerosol mixture has mostly originated from wildfires burning in the Northwestern US; with fires in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho contributing the most. Gulf Coast: Aerosol seen this morning along the Gulf Coast is believed to be a mixture of light smoke, haze, and possibly other unknown aerosols. Fires along the Lower Mississippi River Valley and in the rest of the Southeast US, including a large smoke producing fire in southern Georgia, are the likely source points for this light smoke. Southern Florida/Southwestern Atlantic: An area of aerosol believed to be Saharan dust can be seen from southern Florida stretching northeastward off the southeast coast of the U.S. on the northern side of Hurricane Irene. This elevated dust layer is slowly moving northwestward. North-central Canada: An area of unknown aerosol is present from the north to southeast parts of the Northwest Territories, extreme southwest Nunavut, northeast Saskatchewan, and northern Alberta. The origin and composition is not known at this time. Sheffler 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