May 29, 2008
Some Smoke in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico
Air quality is good-to-moderate across the nation today. It's been a beautiful, sunny, low humidity day in the Northeast and most of the Mid-Atlantic under the influence of a surface high pressure system. Today's MODIS Terra true color image below (courtesy of SSEC at the University of Wisconsin) shows how clear the skies were today over much of the Northeast. Air quality is good in New England and New York this evening, with some moderate ozone conditions scattered across the Mid-Atlantic and the Ohio River Valley.
There is some smoke evident in today's MODIS Aqua true color image of Texas, New Mexico, and northern Mexico (top; courtesy of SSEC at the University of Wisconsin). The corresponding GASP AOD image from 1715 UTC (below; courtesy of NESDIS) shows elevated AOD over northwestern Mexico. The smoke is likely being advected by southerly winds into Texas and New Mexico from the seasonal fires buring in Mexico. The smoke is not impacting surface air quality today, however, with the exception of moderate PM2.5 readings in El Paso, Texas.
