July 10, 2009
Alaska Fires Continue, and Moderate PM25 AQI levels in Central US
NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product, overlaid in Google Earth (top left), shows smoke over southern Alaska. This smoke extends into the Canadian Northwest Territories and Nunavut into Saskatchewan and Manitoba . In eastern Canada, smoke from fires in Happy Valley Goose Bay are reaching the ground in New Brunswick. In the US, smoke was detected over northeast Texas and Oklahoma, central Arizona and eastern Utah. The Alaska smoke might have led to the high MODIS Terra AOD (top right) values along southern Alaska and western Canada. In the US, high AOD was observed over the states of Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. Cloud coverage limited the AOD retrieval over the eastern half of the US and Canada during Terra and Aqua overpass.
EPA AIRNow’s PM2.5 map (bottom left) shows, moderate air quality conditions between Central US and west of the eastern US states. The rest of the nation experienced good PM25 concentrations. Ozone levels were moderate in California, the Ohio River Valley, Texas and Oklahoma (bottom right).
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