DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z March 19, 2023
SMOKE/AEROSOLS: Southern Gulf of Mexico, Northwest Caribbean Sea, Southern and Eastern Mexico, Central America, Pacific Well South of Mexico and Central America… The very large area of thin density smoke from ongoing widespread seasonal fire activity primarily occurring in Mexico and Central America along with aerosols from industrial activity in those regions was seen covering much of southern and eastern Mexico, Central America, the far western Caribbean Sea, and the Pacific well south of the southern coast of Mexico and Central America. The smoke/aerosol mix also extended north of there into the southern Gulf of Mexico. Within this area of thinner density smoke/aerosol mixture were a couple of embedded moderately dense areas of smoke/aerosol which were attributed more to the seasonal fire activity in Mexico and Central America. One of those was seen over southeastern Mexico and the southern and southwestern Gulf of Mexico and another area off the northwest coast of Central America. Hanna 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 map: https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg Smoke data: https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Smoke_Polygons Fire data: https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Fire_Points ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO: SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov