May 31, 2012
Good AQI; Smoke and fires persit
Today Air Quality throughout the nation was pretty much good with some stations reading moderate PM2.5 levels. In California and the Southeast region moderate levels were mainly reached (top left). In terms of Ozone; some stations registered moderate levels but for short period of time. Fires and smoke continue over the US. An area of thin-density smoke, possibly mixed with dust from fires in Asia, can be seen in this morning's imagery over much of the northern US Plains up through the Northwest Territories. The area also is wrapping around the south side of a low and extends across central and northern Ontario as well. An area of medium dense smoke is present over North Dakota and into Saskatchewan, north central Manitoba, and northwestern Ontario (top left).
An area of remnant smoke can be seen from Mississippi and Alabama across the northeast Gulf of Mexico, covering northern Florida and off the East coast of Florida. The smoke is likely a mix from various fires in the southwest US and the Mississippi Valley. According to the fires in Mexico/Texas Modis detected another image where fires and smoke plumes are visible (middle left). In this region also, AOD levels are high due to the smoke (middle right). Finally, Lidar observations at UMBC detected remnant smoke during the morning (bottom). The smoke vanished later in the day.
 |  |
 |  |
 |