U.S. Air Quality

More on What's that in Big Bend?….

The haze mass that you're seeing in Big Bend is likely dust. Amy's post shows that fires are predominantly located in Northern and Eastern Texas. I used the NOAA HYSPLIT model to determine if smoke from these fires reached Big Bend. HYSPILT backward trajectories indicate that aerosols likely came from the west (see below).

Dust was noticed in this region a few days ago (refer to archived smog blog post ). The NRL NAAPS model estimated elevated concentrations of dust at Big Bend NP (bottom image). The animated aerosol map, which shows transport of different aerosols over time, indicated that the source of dust was from Western Texas and Mexico.

Dust mixed with clouds is also visible in the MODIS imagery (also refer to Band 31). Unfortunately, dust and organic carbon measurements made by the Big Bend IMPROVE aerosol monitor are currently unavailable.

Posted by Nikisa Jordan at March 14, 2006 10:58 PM