Friday, February 11, 2022

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z February 11, 2022

SMOKE:
South Central and Southeastern U.S…
An unusually large area of remnant thin density smoke for this time of the
year was seen this morning stretching from south central and eastern Texas
to the east and northeast over much of the southeastern U.S. and across
the central Appalachians to a portion of the Mid-Atlantic region. Within
the large area of thin density smoke was a stripe of moderate density
smoke which extended from west central Louisiana to the northeast to
southeastern Arkansas and west central Mississippi. All of this remnant
smoke was due to yesterday’s widespread and significant amount of mainly
seasonal type fire activity over the south central and southeastern U.S.

Gulf of Mexico/Florida…
Patches of leftover thin density smoke were present this morning over
the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico and over at least a portion of
the northwestern part of the Florida peninsula. This smoke was believed
to be from yesterday’s seasonal fire activity in Florida though some
of the smoke over the central Gulf of Mexico may be from seasonal fires
in Mexico.

Cuba/Caribbean/Bahamas…
Leftover thin to moderate density smoke attributed to fires in Cuba
was visible over eastern Cuba, the nearby Caribbean south of Cuba,
and a portion of the Atlantic just north of Cuba and south of the Bahamas.

SMOKE/AEROSOL:
Mexico/Northwestern Central America/Pacific Ocean South of Mexico and
Central America/Gulf of Mexico...
A combination of light density smoke from seasonal fire activity in
Mexico and Central America along with other atmospheric pollutants
including aerosols from oil/gas flaring and other industries were
observed across the coastal areas of southern Mexico and northwestern
Central America and extending well to the south of these areas over the
eastern Pacific. A slightly thicker embedded batch of smoke/aerosol was
noted along and south of the southeastern part of the Mexican state of
Oaxaca. Farther to the north, some aerosol was seen over eastern and
southeastern Mexico and over the Bay of Campeche and far western Gulf
of Mexico but cloud cover in these areas made detection difficult in
satellite imagery so it wasn’t certain if any smoke is present there.

JS


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/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg
GIS:    ftp://satpsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/FIRE/HMS/GIS/
KML:    http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/fire.kml (fire)
        http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/smoke.kml (smoke)

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.