July 21, 2009
Alaska fires update; Higher ozone levels in Georgia and up to unhealthy in California
Today a better picture from the Alaska fires could be obtained from Terra MODIS true color imagery (top, left).
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation issued yesterday an Air Quality Advisory for interior Alaska according to AIRNow. It reports that during the period between 20th-22nd July the air quality will range from moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups, and for the regions closest to the fires hazardous conditions can be experienced.
AIRNow PM2.5 map for today (top, right) shows that the region of moderate conditions increased in Texas, in the Midwest below the Great Lakes and in the Southeast region and improved in Southern Florida.
Ozone levels (bottom, left) reached up to Unhealthy levels (Code Red) in California and up to Code Orange in Georgia.
NOAA's HMS (bottom,right) reported an extensive area of smoke over US and Canada due to the Alaska fires but the only smoke that could be observed in satellite imagery today was the one over Alaska itself.
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Terra MODIS US true color image is below on the left side and Terra MODIS AOD map for Texas is on the right side, showing higher values of AOD in Southern Texas, bordering Mexico.
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