May 24, 2011
South East covered in smoke, Texas also reporting USG levels.
Today there were still large amounts of wild fires spread throughout the United States. The regions that appear to be strongly affected are the South East and up the East Coast of the United States. These smoke plumes appear to reach as far as Maryland and West Virginia. This first image is courtesy of the NOAA HMS. The smaller red dots indicated a noticeable fire and the grey regions are the smoke plumes. There are large amounts of brush fires in Mexico that are also helping to cause poor air quality in certain areas of Texas. This second image shows that the cities of Lubbock and El Paso have been warranted an "Unsafe for Sensitive Groups" level of air today.
 |  |
The following images focus on the air quality in the South Eastern United States. There have been many fires in this region and the fire is causing a large amount of particulate matter to be spewed into the air. The first image shows the NOAA IDEA image of the AOD over this region. The second image shows an overlay of the MODIS satellite images, the NOAA HMS fire locations, and the AOD from before. This is emphasizing the poor air quality in the regions where there is a direct fire.
 |  |