July 7, 2009
Quiet Day for Air Quality in U.S.; Saharan Dust Continues over Caribbean
PM2.5 and ozone air quality were mostly in the Code Green (Good) range across the nation today, with some scattered areas of Code Yellow (Moderate) and a few isolated readings of Code Orange (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups) ozone in Texas, as shown in the loops of AQI values below (PM2.5 on left, ozone on right; images courtesy of AIRNow).
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NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke product (below) indicates minor areas of smoke from active fires in northern California, and a thin residual smoke plume across eastern Colorado; these plumes do not appear to be affecting surface air quality.
Saharan dust from the west coast of Africa appears to still be impacting the Caribbean. Today’s Terra MODIS AOD image for Central America (below on left; image courtesy of Hai Zhang and NOAA) indicates a swath of elevated AOD over the eastern Caribbean. A thin layer of dust can be discerned in the corresponding Terra MODIS true color image (below on right; image courtesy of NASA MODIS Rapid Response). NASA’s Earth Observatory has a terrific MODIS true color image of the Saharan dust leaving the west coast of Africa on July 2.
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