U.S. Air Quality

Moderate PM2.5 and Ozone over the US; Fires and a lot of smoke

Today, AirNow reported moderate PM2.5 and Ozone levels in several regions. In terms of PM2.5 moderate levels were reached in most of Eastern US. As usual moderate PM2.5 levels were also reached in California (top left). Moderate Ozone levels initially were read in the Great Lakes region, however, during the afternoon many other states experienced an increase in Ozone concentration and the initial moderate levels in the Great Lakes region turned unhealthy for sensitive groups (top right).Great attention is concentrated over the fires in New Mexico and Texas. These fires have produced large amounts of thick smoke, which has extended over a long area covering from New Mexico/Texas up to the great lakes trough the Central Plains states (middle left). Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) retrieval from MODIS on Terra satellite reported high levels over Texas, New Mexico and Mexico (middle right). In addition, true color satellite images show the smoke plumes. In particular the bottom image shows the Whitewater-Baldy Fire Complex, a large blaze burning in a mountainous part of Gila National Forest in western New Mexico. The rapidly expanding fire, which started with a lightning strike, had burned more than 10,000 acres (16 square miles) by May 24, 2012.