July 13, 2009
Smoke/haze moves off the coast; Code Yellow PM2.5 along the Gulf Coast and Code Orange Ozone in TX/LA
The smoke/haze that we have been tracking for the past few days on the Blog has moved off over the Atlantic, ahead of an advancing front that has stalled across the Southeast. The position of the front is evident from the line of clouds seen in today’s MODIS Aqua true color image (below on left; courtesy of UW MODIS Today). No areas of haze or smoke are discernible in the MODIS true color image, and there are no significant or widespread areas of elevated AOD in today’s MODIS Aqua AOD image (below on right; courtesy of NOAA IDEA).
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NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product (below on right) indicates several smoke plumes across the country, but these are disperse plumes that are not evident in the MODIS true color images. HMS also analyzes several areas of SO2 aerosol over North America, which are remnants of the recent eruption of the Sarychev volcano in Russia.
The smoke does not appear to be impacting surface air quality, as shown in today’s loops of PM2.5 AQI values (below on left) and ozone AQI values (below on right; images courtesy of AIRNow). Air quality is mostly Code Green (Good) today, with Code Yellow (Moderate) PM2.5 conditions along the Gulf Coast, ahead of the front, and Code Orange (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups) ozone in the northeast TX/ northwest LA region. The stationary front is forecasted to persist through Wednesday evening, at which time it will begin to move northeast as a warm front.
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