Sunday, May 13, 2012

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1545Z May 13, 2012

Central U.S./Great Lakes/Central and Western Canada:
A rather expansive aerosol plume, believed to be comprised of both
remnant smoke and dust is seen across nearly the entire central
U.S. and over a good portion of central and western Canada. Aerosol
plume, seen using GOES-West satellite imagery  is over areas from
Indiana/Illinois/Missouri northward across Michigan/Wisconsin/central
Great Lakes/Ontario and westward back to Utah/southeast Idaho/eastern-half
of Montana/Saskatchewan.  The aerosol plume continues to extend from
Saskatchewan north and west from northern Saskatchewan across northeastern
Alberta/south-central and southwest Northwest Territories.  From the
Northwest Territories the aerosol is seen south and west over northern to
west-central British Columbia then westward over the Pacific.  The remnant
smoke component of the aerosol is believed to be from numerous fires
burning across Siberia for the past few days, while the dust component
is from portion of southeast and eastern Asia.


Warren


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.