U.S. Air Quality

Smoke over Great Lakes and Air Quality improving in California

According to NOAA's Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product the smoke/haze over the western Great Lakes, was from the fires earlier this week in British Columbia. The thin smoke/haze is visible in today's MODIS Terra RGB image over the Great Lakes, and might have contributed to the high readings in today's MODIS Terra (left figure) and AQUA (right figure) AOD retrieval. The presence of haze was visible, as well, over the states of Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama in today's EPA's region 4 MODIS Terra true color image.

National Interagency Fire Center reports that the Station and Oasis fires in California are 60 and 30% contained, respectively. Air quality in the valleys of Los Angeles County has improved since last week. Ground concentrations as high as 39 ug/m3 and 78 ppb for PM2.5 (below left) and ozone (below right), respectively, were recorded by the monitors of the South Coast Air Quality Management District according to EPA's Airnowtech .
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