August 16, 2009
Haze/Smoke, high AOD and Moderate AQI over Midwest and Northeast
Today the air quality in the East shows a little improvement compared to yesterday. Moderate to Unhealthy (Code Orange) conditions remains but more to the upper Midwest and Northeast. More specifically, code orange in OH/PA/NY.
California also presented moderate to Unhealthy (for sensitive groups) conditions along the day as can be seen in the AIRNow PM2.5 map (top, left). Ozone levels were good to moderate in Arizona, over the Great Lakes in the Midwest and over the Northeast and moderate to unhealthy in California (top, right).
Also in the Northeast, MODIS Terra true color image (bottom, left) shows today what the SSD team at NOAA reported as thin smoke (which source is believed to be remnant from the western fires and possibly from Alaska) mixed in haze. Also, MODIS Terra AOD map shows high values over that same region (bottom, right).
 |  |
 |  |