DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1445Z May 1, 2013
Dust: Texas Panhandle: Strong sfc northerlies behind the cold front seen as a developing undular bore/gravity wave packet across along the W OK boarder with the TX panhandle. Thin to moderately dense dust and sand can be seen moving south covering all the TX panhandle to around the Red River/Canyon region. Small portions of boarder area along NM boarder appear to be affected as well. Unknown aerosol (likely dust): Front Range of MT/Alberta Rockies: A thin density aerosol is moving SE across the Southern portions of Alberta/SW Saskatchewan and north central and northeast MT. This area is quickly fading with higher solar incident angle, indicating how thin in density and likely layer it is. It is possible this area is associated with local loose soils along the front range of the Rockies where downsloping winds are strong enough to kick it up OR it could be higher in elevation, into the upper troposphere... if so, then it would be associated with transported Asian dust... at this point it is too difficult to determine without a Lidar or pilot report. NE Utah: An additional area of unknown aerosols can be seen in NE UT moving SE into NW Colorado south of the Unita mountain range. Determining source is similarly difficult as area above, however, the hazy area can be seen moving across the Wasatch and Unita's early in the loop indicating the area is well aloft, and so is likely attributed to the transport of Asian dust/sand/pollutants. Gallina THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF 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