May 3, 2008
Haze in parts of Northeast, smoke in south Texas
The haze in the eastern U.S. that Ana posted on yesterday concentrated in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey today, producing code orange (unhealthy) fine particle concentrations in southern Pennsylvania (AIRNow image, left) and visible haze (MODIS Aqua image, right). There is also an interesting, very distinct, frontal boundary crossing Maine in the MODIS image.
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South Texas had some moderate fine particle concentrations, likely due to a number of fires in Mexico and Central America, causing significant smoke over the Gulf of Mexico. Below are a set of MODIS Aqua images showing the smoke and the fire counts (red boxes outlining the fire areas). The fires have been burning for a number of days and I expect the smoke will continue to influence air quality in the southern U.S.
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