U.S. Air Quality

Some smoke and Good to Moderate AQ across the U.S

According to the NOAA HMS analysis (right) there is still smoke over the U.S and a little bit of haze was visible today over the Great Lakes region, as well as over the central U.S. The left image is today's MODIS Terra RGB and the AirNow AQI. One correction from our previous posts is that the AQI in the AirNow KMZs we've been showing on google earth is not the PM2.5 AQI but the lead AQI for that day. During the cold months bad air quality is usually due to eleveated PM2.5 concentrations, but now that the warm weather has arrived, the lead AQI could be either PM2.5 or ozone. Today, the moderate PM2.5 AQI was mostly in the Great Lakes Region and southern California, and the moderate ozone AQI was mostly in the southeast, hence the lead AQI map to the left has yellow dots in all these areas. The ozone loop also shows how the concentrations rose throughout the day. Remeber that ozone, unlike PM2.5 needs sunlight to form. In Southern Louisiana and Florida some locations reached the orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) range for ozone.

California seems relatizely haze free, with some scattered fire activity. I believe a see the remnants of a smoke plume in the southern part of the state.