DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z March 05, 2015
Gulf of Mexico: A large plume of thin remnant smoke could be seen extending north/northeastward from the Gulf of Campeche across the central and northern Gulf of Mexico to the coast of northwest Florida. This smoke is from both agricultural fires in Mexico/Central America and from oil rigs present in the Gulf of Campeche. In addition, remnant smoke from fires in Cuba could be seen this morning spreading north across the eastern Gulf/Florida Keys merging with the larger plume of remnant smoke. Some of the remnant smoke may extend further northeast along the coast of the Southeastern US, but as of this morning there was enough cloud cover to partially obscure any aerosol there. Central US: An area of unknown aerosol was seen in morning GOES-W imagery moving eastward across parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. The aerosol appears to have originated from the west or northwest being propelled eastward by an upper level trough moving across the central US. Sheffler 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.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