Fires across the Yucatán Peninsula sent haze northward over the Gulf of Mexico and toward the United States in early April 2009. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on April 12, 2009. This image shows numerous fires—marked by red outlines—blowing smoke toward the northwest. In addition to myriad individual smoke plumes, a large plume blows off the coast and over the ocean.
According to the U.S. Air Quality “Smog Blog,” smoke from the Yucatán fires affected air quality in U.S. coastal cities in southern Florida and Louisiana. On April 13, 2009, haze intensified over the Peninsula and the southern United States.
References & Resources
- U.S. Air Quality. (2009, April 12). Smoking in the Caribbean affecting coastal cities. Accessed April 14, 2009.
- U.S. Air Quality. (2009, April 13). Heavy smoke in the Gulf of Mexico, dust off the Pacific Coast. Accessed April 14, 2009.
NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
