Smoke Transport Across the U.S.

The gray pall in this scene blanketing much of southern California, Arizona and New Mexico, as well as northwestern Mexico, is smoke being generated by the intense wildfires burning around Los Angeles and San Diego. Some of this smoke has now spread as far north and east as the Great Plains and Great Lakes regions. Note the smoke plume (yellowish streak) running east-west over that region. An atmospheric transport model created by the Naval Research Laboratory shows how the smoke was carried northeastward by strong winds.

This true-color image was produced using data acquired by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on October 30, 2003.

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Image courtesy the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE