U.S. Air Quality

Air quality is very good across the country

and this is getting to be my common Saturday post. In the frame on the left, the AirNow PM levels are green all across the country except for less than a dozen isolated sites. I did find something new (at least to me it is new). NOAA now publishes met data in KML format which will make overlaying satellite imagery and met variables easy. In the right panel, I've overlaid today's morning MODIS RGB showing the front that moved through last night which has cleared the air across much of the country with the surface relative humidity. I haven't played with all the options, but it appears you can superimpose upper air profiles on the map. Each overlay is a graph of the upper air profile, which while useful is a bit klugy. It would help identify PBL and elevated layer heights in confusing situations.

Aqua MODIS is now up and there are some fires in California, one near Salinas and the other near Mendocino.