DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z March 28, 2016
SMOKE: Texas/Lower Mississippi River Valley/Gulf of Mexico: A patch of thin remnant smoke was seen spanning from the northwestern portion of the Gulf of Mexico and southern Texas into the Lower Mississippi River Valley. This smoke was slowly traveling towards the southeast and likely originated from yesterday's agricultural/prescribed burns in the Central Plains. Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche: With much of the Gulf of Mexico covered by sparsely broken cloud cover, the only smoke that could be seen across the region besides the northwestern Gulf of Mexico was within the Bay of Campeche stretching to the south central Gulf. This remnant thin smoke is mostly from fires in Mexico and other nearby countries of Central America. DUST: Central and Northern Plains: An area of an elevated aerosol was observed over the Central and Northern Plains. It is difficult to determine its full extent due to the diffuse nature of the aerosol and clouds obscuring the Midwest and the Intermountain West. The aerosol is thought to be elevated dust particles, possibly originating from Asia based on back trajectories of aerosol models. -Cronin 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