U.S. Air Quality

Intense Fires and Smoke in the Central Plains, But Widespread Code Green Air Quality

The fires and smoke that Adam identified yesterday in his blog continue today, as evidenced by the elevated AOD seen in the Central Plains by the Aqua MODIS images below. Concentrated in Kansas and Oklahoma, we see AOD values reaching near unity(1)in a few locations of this region.

A colleague flying over Oklahoma today snapped the picture below (left), some real-time evidence of the fires picked up by MODIS. NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System (HMS) also detected a high concentration of fires in Kansas and Oklahoma. However, in contrast to recent days, no visible smoke was identified by the HMS analyst.

A frontal system crossing the Gulf of Mexico is pushing the smoke from the last few days to the east, although the smoke does not appear to be affecting air quality at the ground level even in likely locations such as southern Florida. See the AIRNow PM2.5 readings below, showing almost completely code green (good) air quality with the exception of some code yellow (moderate) readings in southern California and Oregon.

Finally, the NAAPS 5-day forecast shows dust in the Southwest, continuing generation of smoke from fires in Mexico and Central America, and widespread sulfates in the Northeast likely linked to coal-fired power plants in the region.

Posted by Erica Zell at April 7, 2009 7:32 PM