May 1, 2012
Layer of dust moves in through the western part of U.S.
The first image below shows the EPA AIRNOW AQI values for the entire United States. There are no major unhealthy air quality forecasts for the country today, but a large grouping of code yellows in the Mid-Atlantic region. This is most likely due to an increase presence of sulfates near the surface. The second image, courtesy NAAPS, shows the current Aerosol Model for the United States. The model picks up these sulfates in the orange in the plot, and shows and increased amount of smoke surface concentrations [ug/m3]. These increased levels appear to be coming up from the fires throughout Mexico and the southeastern U.S. The large amounts of dust moving in from the Pacific Northwest has the signs of transport from somewhere east of the country.
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The first image below, courtesy LANCE Webmapping Service, shows the MODIS AOD and the AIRS Dust Score. Although the NAAPS model shows a large amount of dust in this region, AIRS shows the largest amounts in southern Nevada and Colorado. The next image, courtesy CALIPSO (sorry for the large image), shows the overpass swath that passed directly through the Rocky Mountain region. The image shows a strong layer around 5 km that extends throughout the entire region. This does show the aerosol layer eventually hitting the surface closer to the Arizona/Mexico Border.
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