DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z March 4, 2012
Southern Florida/Cuba: Many seasonal fires were analyzed during the day across Cuba. Numerous thin density smoke plumes moved in a northerly direction and off the north coast of Cuba. A few of these smoke plumes passed across portions of the Florida Keys and headed toward the mainland of southern Florida. Arkansas/Oklahoma: The most concentrated area of fires and smoke plumes seen in satellite imagery during the day was across portions of Oklahoma and Arkansas. Most of the smoke plumes in this region moved in a southeasterly direction. Western Texas: A small patch of thin density blowing dust originated from point sources in western Texas between Lubbock and Midland and moved to the southeast during the afternoon. Western US/Eastern Pacific: An aerosol of unknown origin and composition was seen in GOES-East visible imagery during the late afternoon and early evening moving to the south across a large region extending from northern Nevada and southern Idaho westward across southern Oregon and northern California and offshore over the eastern Pacific. Additional aerosols were present moving to the northeast along and off the central California coast. There is some possibility that the aerosol across this region is dust which has been transported aloft across the Pacific Ocean from Asia. JS 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