U.S. Air Quality

Fires Producing Intense Smoke in North America….

Many fires in California have been producing significant smoke over much of the West (see old posts on the blog). Most of these fires are, in fact, still going strong; air quality (EPA AIRNow) remains poor as smoke continues to drift northward into Oregon and Washington. Local fires in Nevada are also contributing to the smoke load in the West.

The nation is receiving another influx of intense smoke, but Canada is the source this time. Please refer to a news story from the Canadian press (archived here) for more details on the forest fires. Also, the The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) provides more information on current conditions. Please link to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS) site for recent data maps.

Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data from the MODIS satellite instrument is shown on the right. The AOD (left; NOAA-UMBC GASP IDEA) provides a better understanding of aerosol intensity. We can clearly see that the aerosol load is most intense in the Northwest, Southern Canada, and North Central U.S. (smoke from Canada). The AOD is also high over the Atlantic and Gulf Coast region. This is likely due to dust transported from Africa along with regional haze. Refer to the satellite RGB images from MODIS as well (right; UW MODIS Today).

But where will all this stuff be headed? If you want the answer to this question please refer to the NOAA-UMBC GASP IDEA website. I’ve provided the animated image below for your convenience, which shows the wind vectors. A JAVA version is also available which allows the user to control the animation and layers to be displayed. In short, smoke from the California fires will likely continue to head northward and more smoke from the Canadian fire event will move further into the U.S Northern Great Plains.



If you live in the regions currently being impacted by smoke please be sure to read health guidelines provided by EPA. Breathe easy and make sure to stay linked to the smog blog!

Posted by Nikisa Jordan at July 1, 2008 8:49 PM | TrackBack