April 17, 2009
Smoke over Gulf of Mexico persists; Moderate air quality in Texas, Oklahoma and around the Great Lakes
Today South Texas experienced moderate air quality due to the fires in Central America and according to EPA forecast southerly winds will help to keep the moderate levels in some regions of Midwest and East (top, left). Moderate ozone levels (top, right) can be seen in this same area and since the forecast is of sunny days for this weekend, they are expected to keep the same.
The fires in Central America keep blowing smoke to Texas through the Gulf of Mexico, leading to the moderate levels in that region. HMS map shows this huge plumes of smoke over Central America and towards Texas (bottom,left), the latter being visible in Terra imagery today (bottom,right).
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Terra MODIS shows higher AOD reading in the Gulf of Mexico, as expected.
What are the cause of the fires and do or when will they have them under control?
Posted by: Mike at April 19, 2009 4:17 PMAs far as I know the fires are caused by agricultural activity when the farmers use the dry season (November through May)to prepare the soil. But the problem with fires is that they can get out of control and end up by burning a thousand of hectares of not only agricultural land but also forests. In terms of control I am not sure what has been done to prevent those fires but after they are started MODIS images help the responsible agencies to know the extension of areas being affected by the fires.
Take a look at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=37782
That is very awesome picture and thanks for the repy. That is a huge area. I see what you mean by the MODIS images helping the agencies know the extent of area being affected. That is crazy that from agricultural activity you get that much area up in flames. I'm guessing that some of the area being remote would hinder their ability to control the fires.
Posted by: Mike at April 24, 2009 2:19 AM