DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z May 9, 2013
Gulf of Mexico: The southern half of the Gulf of Mexico is covered by moderate density remnant smoke as a result of an enormous amount of wildfires and agricultural burns that continue to be active each day in Mexico. Pacific Northwest: Much of the US Pacific Northwest region, including Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, as well as southern British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan in Canada, is covered in a broad area of remnant thin density smoke that was collectively produced from wildfires in those states and provinces. It is very likely that Asian dust is present in this region, too. Gulf of Alaska: An unknown aerosol was observed near the southern Alaska coast earlier in the day today. Models indicate that this is likely surface sulfate pollutants. From this Morning- Midwest/Great Lakes: An area of thin to moderately dense smoke was observed across portions of Wisconsin, eastern Iowa, Illinois, northwestern Indiana, Michigan and southeastern Ontario province. The portion of the smoke seen as moderately dense was oriented southwest to northeast across central Michigan. This area of remnant smoke originated from several agricultural fires that were analyzed yesterday across the northern plains and south-central Canada. Dust: A broad area of trans-Pacific dust is observed over Alberta, Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba provinces. The dust is believed to have originated from Asia. Ramirez 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