Friday, May 30, 2014

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1430Z May 30, 2014

Smoke:
Funny River Complex Output:
Smoke that was emitted from the Funny River fire complex on the Kenai
peninsula in Alaska last weekend through early this week has tracked
across northern but with a very large cyclone that has developed
over central northern Canada; the smoke coverage area has nearly been
bifurcated.

Eastern Canada:
On the eastern side of the cyclone, a large area of very thin smoke can
be seen covering much of Northern and Eastern Hudson Bay/James bay,
NE Ontario and W Quebec nearing the St. Lawrence River near Ottawa.
On the SW edge of the thin smoke is a concentrated ribbon of moderately
dense smoke that is about 20-30 km wide and  extends from the central
coastline of N Ontario and Hudson Bay SE along the SW portion of James
Bay into W Quebec.

Western Canada:
On the western side of the cyclone, a large patch of thin to moderately
dense smoke from early this week to mid week, can be seen piling
up/concentrating under western flow impinging on the easterly flow being
wrapped back by the cyclone.  As such, the smoke is becoming more dense
but also splitting to go NE and S and SE around the periphery of the large
cyclone envelope.  The pile up (moderate density) is mainly centered on
the SW portions of the NW Territory and along the BC/Alberta boarder,
thin smoke extends back east under the cyclone across central Alberta into
Saskatchewan.   Other thin smoke “feeder bands” can be seen across far
NE Alaska and N Yukon Territory as well as S Yukon Territory and NE BC.

Canadian Prairies:
On the southern side of the cyclone, very thin smoke that is mixed with
Asian dust from nearly a week ago as taken the longer path along the
west coast of Canada, the US to rotate back northward across CA/NV/ID
yesterday to reach the current location exiting central and NE MT into
SE Saskatchewan and central Manitoba on the SWly inflow to the cyclone.

Aerosols/Haze:
The very large area of pollutant aerosols and mixed haze that was
described yesterday across the Central US has not changed much except
expanded the areal coverage under the influence of large upper level
cyclone that is parked over the Lower Mississippi River Valley.

Midwest US:
Moderately dense to dense aerosols were seen in high oblique sun angles
from GOES-West but are dense enough to still be seen in GOES-East at
this time,  it is located in the confluent flow along the northern side
of the Miss. R. cyclone and northerly flow from the large cyclone in
Canada, leaving the southern half of MN, IA/IL/IN, S OH and N KY under
the affects of this dense area.... on the northern side it is moving N
and the eastern side it is moving E but for the bulk of it...is stagnant.

Northern Great Plains:
Thin to moderately dense aerosols are seen moving NNW across the eastern
half of NEB, SD and likely ND (though covered with clouds at this time).

Southern Great Plains:
Thin density aerosols can be be seen moving S across W KS, W OK (including
panhandle), into west central central and southeastern Texas.   For the
most part this area is less dense than the others except near Houston
and Gulf counties.   Due to the different air mass, eastern KS, nearly
all of MO and E OK appeared clear for the most part.

Gallina

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.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/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.