April 25, 2012
Moderate Ozone Concentrations in the Mississippi Valley States, Colorado and Utah; Smoke over the Southeastern United States and Cloud capped Boundary Layer in Baltimore
Locations along the Mississippi Valley and the Southern US experienced Ozone concentrations reached Moderate (Code Yellow) due to light winds, limited pollutant dispersion, and sunny skies with warm temperatures that enhanced ozone formation. NOAA's HMS product reports that a narrow band of thin smoke, likely from fires burning across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi was observed across central Georgia, South Central Alabama in the satellite imagery. The top right and bottom left figures, AOD and "true color" images, respectively shows this smoke distribution over the Southeastern United States. This smoke is not impacting the air quality over this region as Good AQI PM2.5 concentrations were reported today.
Lidar observations over Baltimore show that a capped cloud (white intensity/scatters on lidar image) boundary layer developed, extending up to 2.5 km. Good air quality was reported today along the Baltimore-Washington DC corridor.
 |  |
 |  |