Smoke from widespread fires in tropical Mexico and Central America appears to be drifting over the U.S. Gulf States. In 1998 similar circumstances resulted in air-quality warnings being issued in several U.S. states, including Texas and Louisiana.
The top image shows smoke and fires (red pixels) observed by the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite. Possibly hundreds of small fires are scattered across Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The lower image, acquired by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), shows smoke from these fires carried by the prevailing winds across the Gulf of Mexico and over the United States.
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Images courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the SeaWiFS Project, NASA GSFC, and ORBIMAGE
