U.S. Air Quality

Fires in British Columbia; Possible haze over Great Lakes

Today the air quality in US was about the same as yesterday and the day before, with moderate conditions in the Midwest and California (AIRNow map, top left). Ozone levels were good.

From both MODIS images we could see extensive cloud coverage over US but, zooming in the Great Lakes region on Terra image (top, right), we see some haze which HMS at NOAA reports as being of unknown composition and source. AOD map from Terra does not show elevated values over the region.

From Aqua AOD map (bottom,left) we see thin ribbons of higher AOD over Alberta due to the fires in Southern British Columbia that could be seen in Aqua RGB image today (bottom,right) and that was also reported by HMS at NOAA.

Posted by Patricia Sawamura at September 13, 2009 11:17 PM