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Fires Across Central America; Smoke Along the Southern Guatemala Coast |
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Today’s NOAA Hazard Mapping System (HMS) Fire and Smoke Product (below) indicates widespread fire activity across Central America and Mexico. Each red dot on the map represents a “hotspot” identified by satellites.
To see if there is any smoke associated with the fire activity, we can consult the MODIS true color imagery. Today’s Terra MODIS image in Google Earth shows smoke along the southern Guatemalan coast (below on left). Smoke appears as a diffuse grey feature in the true color image; clouds are bright white. Both smoke and clouds are evident in today’s true color image of Guatemala. There also appears to be a significant amount of smoke mixed with clouds in western Columbia (below on right).
Smoke is a concern for air quality because it contains high concentrations of particulate matter. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) is a satellite product that corresponds to particulate concentrations in the atmosphere. Today’s Terra MODIS AOD image for Central America (below) shows slightly elevated AOD levels associated with the smoke in southern Guatemala and Columbia. Otherwise, AOD levels are low, which suggests that the fire activity is not affecting air quality to a large extent today.
Although the smoke in South America appears to be confined to Columbia for the moment, it may impact eastern Panama over the next few days, due to the proximity of the fire activity to the Panamanian border. The 5-day Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS) global aerosol model forecast for smoke (below) indicates that smoke will continue to affect southern Guatemala and Columbia over the next few days, and smoke is also forecast to impact Costa Rica.
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