Smoke reaching the northeastern United States from Canada in 2023 from fires raving in western Canada has mostly shown up at relatively high elevations. Because the fires in Quebec are reasonably close to the northeast U.S., a much larger proportion of the smoke got here in surface-level air. Around the time of the image, AirNow air quality monitors measured levels of great particulate matter (PM2.5) overlooking 400 micrograms per cubic meter of air in Syracuse, New York– the highest on record for the city because routine measurements began in 1999.
” The surface area smoke contamination from New York to the D.C. region is easily the most substantial considering that at least July 2002, when a comparable situation took place with close-by fires in Quebec,” stated Ryan Stauffer, a climatic scientist based at NASAs Goddard Space Flight. “This occasion is measuring up to, and in many cases will likely go beyond the observed 2002 smoke contamination.”
According to Stauffer, the air quality index for PM2.5 in New York City exceeded 175 (code red) on June 6, topping the previous record of 167 from 2002. The next day, on June 7, 2023, “the D.C. area signed up with New York City and experienced some of its most smoke-polluted air in the previous 25 years,” Stauffer said.
Smoke reddening the early morning Sun and turning skies gray over NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center on June 7, 2023.
Numerous NASA satellites are gathering data throughout the occasion. For instance, the Terra, Aqua, and Aura satellites observe how smoke particles impact how much light the environment absorbs and reflects (aerosol optical depth), while the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) mission collects observations of smoke height. Data from NASAs ground-based Micro-Pulse Lidar Network (MPLNET) and Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) show that a significant amount of smoke is present near the surface.
Such thick smoke at ground-level is rare in the eastern U.S., prompting lots of people to notice the optical impacts smoke can have on sunlight. “Smoke particles scatter and absorb shorter wavelengths of sunlight like yellows, blues, and greens more quickly compared to the longer-wavelength oranges and reds, so we see muted red dawns and sundowns under heavy smoke conditions,” explained Stauffer. “In severe cases like this week, the Sun might become obscured entirely.”
The photo above programs smoke reddening the early morning Sun and turning skies gray over NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center on June 7, 2023. It was taken by Colin Seftor, an atmospheric researcher based at the. At the time of the picture, MPLNET data show a multi-layered smoke plume overhead, with thick smoke near the surface approximately about 3 kilometers (2 miles), followed by a thinner layer at about 6 kilometers, and a faint layer of smoke hovering at about 12 kilometers.
” There are different histories to each one of those layers that would be intriguing to untangle,” said Michael Fromm, an atmospheric scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, after seeing the MPLNET data. “The layer prowling at 12 kilometers is a month old and can really be traced back to intense fires in Alberta on May 5.”
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using GOES 16 imagery courtesy of NOAA and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). Photograph by Colin Seftor (NASA/SSAI).
The Terra, Aqua, and Aura satellites observe how smoke particles impact how much light the environment takes in and reflects (aerosol optical depth), while the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) objective gathers observations of smoke height. Such thick smoke at ground-level is unusual in the eastern U.S., prompting many people to discover the optical impacts smoke can have on sunlight. “Smoke particles scatter and absorb shorter wavelengths of sunlight like greens, yellows, and blues more quickly compared to the longer-wavelength oranges and reds, so we see muted red daybreaks and sundowns under heavy smoke conditions,” described Stauffer. The photograph above shows smoke reddening the morning Sun and turning skies gray over NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center on June 7, 2023. At the time of the photo, MPLNET information reveal a multi-layered smoke plume overhead, with thick smoke near the surface area up to about 3 kilometers (2 miles), followed by a thinner layer at about 6 kilometers, and a faint layer of smoke hovering at about 12 kilometers.
GOES-16 satellite image shows smoke sweeping into New York and Pennsylvania on the morning of June 7, 2023.
Fires in Quebec have provided one of the most extreme outbreaks of smoke seen in the eastern U.S. in decades.
Wildfire smoke from Canada has actually passed over the northeastern U.S. several times each summertime recently, but it typically goes undetected because it is relatively high in the environment. That was not the case in June 2023. In the first week of the month, large amounts of smoke from fires in Quebec put south into the eastern U.S. and deteriorated the quality of surface-level air that 10s of countless people breathe.
Winds normally move smoke from fires in Quebec towards the east and out to sea. In June 2023, a persistent seaside low focused near Prince Edward Island instead steered smoke south into the United States. This image, from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16 (GOES-16), shows smoke sweeping into New York and Pennsylvania on the morning of June 7, 2023. GOES-16 is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); NASA helps develop and release the GOES series of satellites.
