April 8, 2010
Moderate PM2.5 levels in Mid Atlantic states; Several Fires and smoke in Central America and Gulf of Mexico
The air quality conditions today over the country are very similar to the conditions reported yesterday by Ruben. Mid Atlantic states (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Virginia North Carolina, and District of Columbia) continue to show moderate levels. In this region, in the state of Pennsylvania were read unhealthy levels for sensitive groups. Moderate levels were also read in California (top left).
According to fires, several fires were detected in U.S and Central America by HMS (top right). In the Gulf of Mexico light residual smoke from fires in Central America stretched north from the Bay of Campeche across the western Gulf to the Texas and Louisiana coasts (bottom). In Texas an intense fire burning south of the border in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila has resulted in a moderately dense to isolated heavy smoke plume that extended across south central Texas at sunset...up to 475km from its source.
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International feature
Global Aerosols on March 2010:
March 2010 was a spectacular month for dust storms (bottom). For much of the month, dust blew across Africa's Sahara Desert and over the Atlantic Ocean. A monitoring station on the island of Barbados in the Caribbean recorded the highest dust concentrations over the island in the past three years. China also saw massive dust storms that swept over the Pacific from the Gobi Desert in China's interior (bottom left).
The image shows the concentration of particles in the atmosphere (aerosols) during March 2010. A dark brown plume extends west from Africa where thick dust blew over the ocean. Dark brown patches also cover parts of China and Southeast Asia where aerosols clouded the sky. Dust contributed to the aerosols in the north, but smoke is the likely culprit for high aerosols in the south. Fires burned extensively in Southeast Asia through March, veiling the region in a pall of smoke. (Earth Observatory).
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