U.S. Air Quality

Smoke over the Carolinas and Central America; Moderate PM2.5 in the Eastern U.S.

A warm front located south of the Great Lakes and extending along the Mississippi Valley, and a humid southeasterly airmass contributed to the Moderate PM2.5 concentrations were reported today in the eastern half of the United States. Smoke from fires in the Carolinas, led to the high AOD readings recorded by the MODIS sensor in NASA's Terra satellite, as shown below in the Google Earth overlay (MODIS RGB/AOD image).

Satellite retrievals from Terra and Calipso (bottom left and right images, respectively) reveal over the presence of smoke Mexico to El Salvador . The smoke is from agricultural fires over this region, and is extending up to 6 km, as shown in yesterday's Calipso overpass over this region.