Wednesday, June 10, 2015

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z June 11, 2015

SMOKE
Central Canada through Great Lakes:
A broad area of mostly light to heavy-density smoke is visible through
Alberta,Saskatchewan, and NW Territories, between Lake Athabasca and Slave
Lake, moving SE into the US. The heaviest smoke is visible moving through
NW Territories through Alberta. Light smoke is visible throughout Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut, Ontario, and into the Great Lakes region
(notably Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.)

Great Lakes through New England:
The area of heavy to light remnant smoke from earlier this morning is
fairly unchanged- the large heavy plume extending from the Mid-Atlantic
through New England east into the Atlantic Ocean continues in the
same direction with little shift. This plume in some areas appears
to have stalled out, and still visible in the same area as this
morning. Medium-density smoke is visible through North Carolina, West
Virginia, Virginia, DC, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
and New York. The lightest density smoke is detected through the from
Tennessee through the Mid-Atlantic, and the entirety of New England into
Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Eastern Canada:
A large plume of medium-density smoke was visible extending from Nunavut
down into northern Quebec at sunset. There were also a few patches
of high level light remnant smoke visible earlier from the wildfires
in northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia were detected
over Hudson Bay and northern Quebec. One longer ribbon of light smoke
stretched from far northern Labrador and Newfoundland eastward across
the Labrador Sea to the southern tip of Greenland.

Mississippi River Valley:
Due to numerous agricultural burns occurring in Arkansas, Oklahoma,Texas,
Louisiana, and Alabama, several small patches of light-density smoke
are visible throughout this area at sunset.

Texas:
A plume of light-density smoke is visible moving west extending from
central Texas across the border into Mexico. This smoke most likely
originates from the agricultural burning taking place in the Southern
Plains as well as Mississippi River Valley.

Western Gulf of Mexico:
A large area of medium-density smoke is visible from the Bay of Campeche
northwest the coast of Mexico towards the US border. This smoke originates
from the prescribed agricultural burning as well as oil exploration in
the bay.

DUST:
Pacific NW:
A blast of foreign blowing dust is visible from Asia making landfall
through northern California, Oregon, and Washington moving east into
Idaho. There are also a few fires currently burning in Oregon as well
as northern California, which could contribute to the aerosols visible
in this region.

Oegerle

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

 


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.