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