DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z August 1, 2016

SMOKE:
Western US/Northern and Central High Plains:
A large area of light density smoke could be seen moving generally
eastward through the region. Small pockets of moderate density smoke was
seen in portions of the region with high density smoke centered close
to the large active fires.  Little downwind dispersion of the higher
density smoke was observed with high density smoke trapped in valley
locations in the northern Rockies.

Gulf Coast:
An area of light density smoke could be seen near/along the gulf coast
from multiple large fires burning. These have persisted for multiple days.

Eastern Alaska/Western Canada: Remnant smoke from fires in Russia could
be seen moving generally eastward across eastern Alaska and portions of
western Canada.

Central Canada:
A broad area of light smoke was seen across central Canada from fires
over northern Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, and from Russia
over the past few days. The fires over Saskatchewan were not observed
at the analysis time due to widespread cloud cover.

DUST:
Caribbean/Western Atlantic/Southeast US/Gulf of Mexico:
Saharan dust can be seen moving westward across the Caribbean/tropical
Atlantic  spreading across the Bahamas, Florida, and the Southeast coast
of the US. In addition a good deal of dust could be seen across the Gulf
of Mexico and Bay of Campeche.

Michael/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.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.