January 3, 2009
Mostly clean air for the start of the New Year…
Today’s PM2.5 air quality map is not available on the EPA AIRNow site, but this does not mean that we cannot discuss the AQI as usual. Fortunately, we have AOD maps from the MODIS spaceborne instrument. Clouds, blocking our view, cover most of the Eastern portion of the country. The Aqua MODIS RGB image (on the left; UW MODIS Today) reveals what appears to be fog (possibly some haze) over Ohio and West Virginia. The AOD (right image; NOAA IDEA) is low in those regions, which indicates that conditions are likely good (code green) at the surface. Elevated AOD is noticeable over the Gulf region. This maybe due to local haze, but the elevated AOD is likely strongly influenced by the fog in this region. The AQI is likely good in the rest of the country based on the AOD map .
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