DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z MAY 10, 2009

Western Gulf of Mexico/South Central Texas/Mexico:
An extremely large mass of mainly thin smoke originating from numerous
seasonal fires burning across Mexico and Central America covered much
of Mexico, southern Baja, and areas offshore of the western and southern
Mexican coast. The smoke also spread northward over the Bay of Campeche
and the western Gulf of Mexico and into portions of southern and central
Texas. Patchy cloudiness over Texas and Louisiana interfered with more
information concerning the extent of the smoke in satellite imagery.

Eastern Gulf of Mexico:
Another patch of haze, likely containing thin smoke emanating from fires
yesterday over Cuba, was observed spreading from northwestern Cuba to
the northwest over the east central Gulf of Mexico.

South Central Canada/Northern Plains:
More aerosol of unknown composition and origin was visible this morning
primarily over southern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba Provinces of
southern Canada as well as portions of the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Iowa,
and the Great Lakes region. It is possible that remnant smoke from a
number of seasonal fires burning in the region yesterday may be mixed
in with this aerosol causing the hazy appearance in satellite imagery.

Southern California:
The wildfire near Santa Barbara had diminished below the threshold for
satellite data to detect it. No smoke was evident in satellite imagery
in the region this morning, although low cloudiness associated with
the marine layer covered coastal areas of southern California and the
offshore waters which is greatly interfering with smoke detection in
satellite imagery.

Alaska:
A swath of unknown aerosol was visible this morning in the clear area to
the northwest of low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska. It is possible that
some of this aerosol is composed of steam/SO2 from the Redoubt Volcano.

JS


THE FORMAT OF THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS BEING MODIFIED. IT WILL NO LONGER
DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS PLUMES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES. THESE
PLUMES ARE DEPICTED IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE:

JPEG:   http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/hms.html
GIS:    http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm
KML:    http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html

THIS TEXT PRODUCT WILL CONTINUE TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE
WHICH HAVE BECOME DETACHED FROM AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE
SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. IT WILL ALSO
STILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOWING DUST.

ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT
PRODUCT IN GENERAL 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.