Today continued yesterday's trends with little change. Ozone activity as shown on AirNow was relatively uneventful for the day, except for central California which experienced Code Orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) in the late afternoon.

Across the Eastern half of the country the Air Quality Index was uneventful mostly green with a few yellow spots, as displayed on this Google Earth image containing MODIS Today and AirNow AQI information:

However, there are still fires and their associated smoke affecting some Western areas. The NOAA Smoke Text product noted that the very northern portions of California, western Oregon, eastern Washington, and western Idaho were experiencing moderate to dense smoke due to the wildfires that were discussed yesterday. The NOAA hazard mapping system shows the predicted extent of these plumes below:

This smoke plumes can be seen on this MODIS Today Image, with the corresponding Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data from NOAA’s IDEA:

Interestingly, the smoke has had only a marginal effect on PM2.5 readings, with only a few scattered code yellow (moderate) and orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) readings cross the upper Northwest on this animation from AirNow:

Air quality was Code Green (Good) today across most of the country, as seen in the hourly loops of AQI values for ozone (below on left) and PM2.5 (below on right). The exception is on the West Coast, where high pressure is creating conditions conducive for elevated ozone and PM2.5 levels. Both pollutants were in the Code Yellow (Moderate) and Code Orange (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups) range across regions of California and Oregon today.

The fires in western Oregon and northern and central California that we have been discussing on the Blog for the past week continued to burn today. Smoke plumes from the fires are evident in the MODIS Aqua true color image for the USA1 region from the MODIS Today website (below on left). Today’s MODIS Terra AOD image (Aqua data aren’t available for the West Coast at this hour) for Region 10 from the IDEA site (below on right) shows elevated AOD levels associated with particulates from smoke plumes associated with the fires.

Weather conditions in the West make it likely that the fires will continue on Tuesday, and new fires may be sparked. The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued Red Flag Warnings for much of Oregon, western Washington, and parts of California for tonight and tomorrow, as shown by the magenta pink areas in the map of NWS watches and warnings (below). A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions are occurring now… or will occur shortly. High pressure and strongly subsiding air along the West Coast are creating very low relative humidities and high temperatures. In some areas, relative humidity values will be <10% for 10 hours or more, creating the potential for explosive fire growth.

The remnants of Hurricane Ike are steaming through the middle states and into Canada. Precipitation in the Chicago area has been excessive from the frontal system which moved through on Friday and Saturday with the largest one day rainfall ever. CoCoRaHs reported 6.61" of rain over 24 hours near DePage, Illinois. Now Ike is adding to that precipitation.

In the west, PM remains steadily high in the south coast of California (see left image). The MODIS Aqua RGB shows haze over the water hugging the coast south of LA (right image) but the high reflectivity in the LA basin masks the PM in both the visible and MODIS AOD retrievals.

The PM levels in Burbank and LA have been in the 30-60 ug m^-3 levels for the last 24 hours.

In central and northern California fires continue to burn. The Cascadel fire which started last Sunday is still burning north of Kings Canyon and the fires near the Oregon border are still going. Quite a fire season for California.

Finally, congratulations to Erica Zell, Ruben Delgado and Nikisa Jordan for a successful training trip to Panama. Check out the Mesoamerican and Caribbean Smog Blog for our new partners from the University of Panama and CATHALAC who are now blogging on that site.

Hurricane Ike hit Texas earlier today (bottom image; source- UW MODIS Today). Millions have been affected by the storm already. CNN reports some of the damage caused by Ike. However, the good news is that the storm has significantly weakened. Refer to the current NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) public advisory. Also, visit the CIMSS satellite blog for more details on this event.

Air quality conditions are poor in California (left). Smoke from local fires (see top image) is probably the primary contributor. Refer to the HMS map (right) for a depiction of fire and smoke. Several EPA AIRNow sites on the east measured moderate AQI (left). Sulfate and Nitrate particles are probably the dominant contributors to the aerosol load in this region.

Ike is now located over southern Texas and Louisiana (top left: UW MODIS Today (Terra) and EPA AIRNow AQI), and hurricane warnings have been issued along most of the Texas coast and western Louisiana coast (bottom: National Hurricane center storm track and warnings; red line indicates hurricane warning).
The eastern U.S, including most of the mid-Atlantic and northeast are enjoying good air quality, aided by rain and cloudiness. Moderate air quality over the Great Lakes, and unhealthy air quality in Cleveland, but we can't look at aerosols from space in that region due to cloudiness. Over California (top right: UW MODIS Today (Aqua) and EPA AIRNow AQI ) moderate to unhealthy air quality continues due to high ozone in the central Valley, and due primarily to aerosols in the south, including the L.A area. In northern California and southwestern Oregon, there is smoke visible (top right) due to fires in those areas, which has lead to unhealthy particulate air quality now also over Oregon.

Today’s EPA AirNow’s PM2.5 map (bellow, left) shows “unhealthy for sensitive groups” air conditions in southern and northern California. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, although wild land fire activity remains light nationally, California currently reports 5 wildfires and one new large fire is reported today in Oregon. The HMS map (View image) confirms this information by showing a smoke plume on the border of California and Oregon. Ozone levels (View image) show “moderate” to “unhealthy for sensitive groups” in the southern part of California. The smoke leads to moderately high GASP AOD values (bellow, right) over the Californian coast.

The rest of the country shows, at the most, “moderate” PM2.5 levels over the mid East and Ozone levels are mostly “good”.

Massive Hurricane Ike, clearly visible over the Gulf of Mexico on today’s TERRA RGB image (bellow) continues moving toward the upper Texas coast at 10 mph this afternoon with sustained winds of 100 mph.
Here’s the forecast storm track, the latest advisory and an image from the GOES satellite in the visible.

Hurricane Ike is capable of producing a life-threatening surge along the immediate upper Texas coast. Forecast models differ on how much, if at all, Ike will strengthen before landfall. Some say Category 2 when he goes ashore. Some say Category 4…

Much of the same today over northwestern California and southwestern Oregon where distinct smoke plumes can be seen in this MODIS Aqua image (top left: UW MODIS Today and EPA AIRNow AQI). The transported smoke is also leading to hazy conditions along the coast of northern California and offshore. It was also hazy over the central and southern portion of the San Joaquin Valley (top right image), although air quality did not reach unhealthy conditions and is primarily in the moderate range. This haze is likely more of a mixture of smoke from fires in the central valley and industrial sources. Ike also continues to approach the Gulf states, growing in strength (as of the current forecast) west of Florida. This can be seen in the NOAA/NESIS IDEA GASP loop below. Visible reflectances are in the gray scale; the color scale is the aerosol content or AOD. The current National Hurricane Center Ike trajectory forecast has the storm center making landfall in the Texas coast.