April 26, 2012
Unhealthy PM2.5 levels in El Paso, NM
Clouds were covering good part of the US today, hindering satellite observations of smoke and/or aerosols in MODIS RGB (top, left). Offshore over the Mid-Atlantic, elevated AOD values were retrieved by MODIS Aqua which might be due to smoke from fires in Florida, as reported by the HMS team at NOAA.
In terms of ground-based measurements of PM2.5, unhealthy levels of PM2.5 were measured in El Paso, New Mexico which was fairly consistent with today's air quality forecast in that region. In the Great Lakes region, moderate levels of PM2.5 were also observed. The animation in the right-hand side (top) shows the readings of combined AQI (Ozone + PM2.5) throughout the day across the US today.
Bottom images were today's forecast from the NRL aerosol modelling team in terms of sulfate and smoke concentration at the surface. According to the models, the code red in El Paso could be due to a mixture of sulfates and smoke from fires in Mexico.
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