According to the SSD fire team at NOAA and the HMS map (top, left), a thin to moderately dense smoke covered parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Southwest Georgia. The TERRA RGB image (top, right) shows in deed some haze from Georgia to Mississippi. That leads to strong AOD values over the area with the strongest records on the Georgian coast. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, firefighters contained a large fire in Alabama today.

What seems to be dust (according to it’s color) is clearly visible on the AQUA RGB image (bottom, left) over the Gulf of California. This leads to fairly strong AQUA AOD values over Baja California Sur.

PM2.5 levels (bottom, right) are, at the most, “unhealthy for sensitive groups” over California. Let’s note also “moderate” air conditions around the Gulf of Mexico, probably due to the smoke plume described earlier. The ozone levels reached “unhealthy” in southern Texas.

According to today’s TERRA RGB image, haze is hovering over the Atlantic offshore from North Carolina to Massachusetts (top, left). This leads to some significantly stronger TERRA AOD values (top, right) over the area.

According to the SSD fire team at NOAA and their HMS map, a band of thin to moderately dense smoke likely mixed with SO2 covers North and South Dakota, western Minnesota, western Iowa, Missouri, and southern Illinois as well as much of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and north Texas. Much of this smoke is likely to be caused by the numerous fires that were burning yesterday across Kansas and Oklahoma. However, this haze seems to be thin enough not to be visible on the TERRA RGB image as well as the AOD map.

The EPA PM2.5 levels (bottom, left) are, at the most “moderate” over the eastern US and California. On another hand, the ozone levels (bottom, right) are, at the most, “unhealthy for sensitive groups” in Louisiana and California.

The haze that Meloë discussed yesterday has moved off the Southeast and Gulf coasts, ahead of a stationary front. Cloud cover associated with the front obscured AOD readings over Florida and the Gulf of Mexico; only a small area of elevated AOD due to the haze is visible over the Atlantic in today’s MODIS Terra AOD image (below on upper left, courtesy of NOAA IDEA). It’s not possible to discern the haze amongst the cloud cover in the MODIS Terra true color image (below on lower right, overlaid with current AQI values and this morning’s synoptic analysis in Google Earth, courtesy of UW MODIS Today, AIRNow, and the NWS). The haze is there, mixed in with the clouds, but it seems to have mostly moved off-shore and is only contributing to scattered Code Yellow (Moderate) PM2.5 readings along the Gulf Coast and in Florida, as shown in today’s loop of PM2.5 values (below on lower left, courtesy of AIRNow). Ozone levels reached Code Orange (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups) in southern and central California, as shown in the loop of ozone values (below on lower right, courtesy of AIRNow).

NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System (HMS) indicates that there are bands of SO2 stretching across the Pacific Northwest into western Canada, and across the northern Midwest. Today’s OMI SO2 image of Alaska (below, courtesy of NOAA NESDIS) shows a large concentrated plume of SO2 stretching across the southwest part of the state. I think the SO2 plumes are associated with the recent eruption of the Sarychev Peak in the Kuril Islands in far eastern Russia. NASA’s Earth Observatory has a terrific picture of the beginning of the eruption on June 12, taken by Space Shuttle astronauts.

Today’s TERRA AOD map (top, left) as well as the GASP image show high extinction values over Southern Texas, Louisiana and Southern Mississippi. According to the National Interagency fire center, active large fires were reported in Texas. The AQUA RGB image (top, right) clearly shows haze over Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico.
Strong TERRA AOD values can also be seen aver the Atlantic offshore from a significant part of the east coast. Haze is, in deed, visible offshore from Georgia on the TERRA RGB image (bottom, left).

Today’s PM2.5 levels (bottom, right) are, at the most, “unhealthy for sensitive groups” in Texas and mostly “moderate” in the Deep south. A high concentration of “Moderate” PM values is also recorded through out California where ozone levels View image reached “unhealthy” today.

Finally, according to the SSD fire team, a thin band of SO2 stretches over the Ohio River Valley (across northern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana) as well as north from Washington into southwest British Columbia, northern Montana, and southern Alberta.

Since last Thursday, Sahara desert dust has covered the Caribbean. Affecting the visibility and leading to health advisories for those who suffer from respiratory illnesses. Evidence and the area of coverage of this Sahara dust cloud was recorded by the lidar on the CALIPSO satellite (top images). High AOD was measured by MODIS Terra over the region where the lidar backscattering signal was greater over the Caribbean.

Below is a picture of the skyline south of the International Airport Luis Munoz Marin in Carolina, Puerto Rico.

The hazy conditions that persisted the past few days, continued today on the east coast and southeastern US. The MODIS Terra True Color image (top left image, source:UW MODIS Today) shows the presence of haze mixed with clouds, as Nikisa discussed yesterday, over the southeastern US. MODIS Terra AOD was high over the region where the haze prevailed (top right image, source: IDEA), with ground PM2.5 concentrations (bottom left, source EPA: Airnow) reaching MODERATE AQI levels .

California's ozone concentrations (bottom right, source EPA: Airnow) reached High MODERATE to UNHEALTHY AQI levels over the San Joaquin River Valley, with the highest concentrations recorded in Fresno (AQI level: 159).

Lingering haze mixed with clouds (left image is Terra MODIS, right image is Aqua MODIS, source: UW MODIS Today) is still evident on the east coast, specifically over the Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic region, and Southeast. PM2.5 concentrations are elevated where haze was predominant; mostly moderate AQI (EPA AIRNow). Aerosols visible over most of the East is likely a mix of smoke and regional haze (particulate sulfates & nitrates). Moderate to high AOD values (bottom images) due to haze/smoke is shown in the IDEA images below (left- Terra; right-Aqua).

California’s air quality is also in the “moderate” (yellow) range. Lastly, as predicted in the earlier post, tropospheric ozone (source: EPA AIRNow) levels are elevated in California and parts of the Eastern half of the country.