August 2, 2009
Smoke from Alaska fires entering US; High AOD in the Northwest US/Canada
Today the smoke from the Alaska fires (which have been reported here since early July) really entered US causing high AOD values in Northwest US. Comparing today's AOD map (left) with the last one posted by Nikisa yesterday we see a clear smoke transport towards the Great Lakes, just as reported in the smoke text product by the HMS team at NOAA today (map @ right); they also reported earlier today that light smoke was reaching as far as Oklahoma.
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The true color images from Terra MODIS show very well the smoke over the Northern/Central US (below):
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PM2.5 map from AIRNow for the US (left) and a closer look in the Northwest as of 7:00pm today (right). Ozone levels can be seen here.
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Fairbanks, AK air quality conditions were not updated today but just by looking the images we might say that a significant improvement was unlikely.
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