November 1, 2009
Moderate AQI in Central US and West Coast; International events
Today moderate levels of PM2.5 were present mostly over Central US and California (AIRNow; top, left). Ozone levels were good, AOD levels were good and no major source of smoke or blowing dust were reported by HMS/NOAA today.
NASA Earth Observatory had as the image of the day on Oct. 28th ashes emissions at Nevado del Huila volcano in Colombia and although today's satellite images of this area were very cloudy, we can see the high values for SO2 column from OMI (top, right).
The volcano has been active since October 16th and INGEOMINAS website issued an Orange alert as of October 30th meaning that an eruption is probable within days or weeks.
Now in Asia, in Northern India, a number of agricultural fires and dense smoke covering a big portion of the country were spotted today in MODIS Aqua true color subsets (bottom). The same hazy environment was mentioned by NASA Earth Observatory a few days ago and according to their analysis, this haze might be a mix of smoke, dust and urban pollution.
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