U.S. Air Quality

Smoke from the Northwestern fires observed over Texas, Great Lakes and Northeast

PM2.5 levels continue very high in the Northwest as can be seen in the AIRNow animation below (right). Hazardous levels were being recorded in Washington state as of 7pm PDT (left).
The rest of the country experienced good to moderate air quality with exception of Cleveland, OH which also experienced high levels of PM2.5 in the afternoon.

The fires in the Northwest are causing high AOD values, as we can see in the MODIS Terra retrievals below.

HMS team reports on smoke over Texas and also over the Northeast that is most likely due to the Northwestern fires (left). Here at UMBC we observed distinct layers of aerosols with our lidars. Below is today's image from the micro-pulsed lidar (right).

Posted by Patricia Sawamura at September 17, 2012 10:47 PM