Heavy smoke over Gulf of Mexico
Dense smoke continued over the Gulf of Mexico due to fires throughout Mexico and the region. On the left are two subsets of MODIS Terra, showing a large blob of smoke over the Gulf south of Louisiana and Texas (ignore the sunglint near Florida). You can also see fires in the Yucatan (and here is MODIS Aqua high-resolution image of fires in Cancun later in the afternoon). Notice all the contrails (ship tracks?) in the smoky regions. On the right, the GOES aerosol product indicated the aerosol optical depth peaked at around 1.2 indicating very high aerosol concentrations. On shore, particle concentrations were code yellow throughout the Gulf region, as well as the midwest. The code red in southern California is likely due to local sources, but the midwest and southeast haze may have some smoke mixed in (see the HYSPLIT back trajectories at 10 m and 1000 m).
Posted by Jill Engel-Cox at May 10, 2006 5:23 PM
