NAAPS Study of Los Alamos and Central America Smoke Plumes, 10-12 May, 2000
Last updated 12 May, 2000
Summary:
A large fire has caused severe damage to the town of Los Alamos and the surrounding forests.
The smoke plume from this fire is extensive.
At the same time, many fires are burning in Central America and Mexico.
Observations at the DOE/ARM SGP site show the possible presence of smoke,
first in an elevated dry layer late on the 10th, then near the surface in a moist layer on the 11th.
NAAPS simulations show that the plume on the 10th is likely from the Los Alamos fires
but the low-level plume on the 11th is too moist to be from New Mexico but might be from Central America fires.
SeaWiFS
imagery for
May 10
and
May 11
shows the western Gulf of Mexico covered by smoke. It also
shows boundary layer cumulus (i.e. moist) air over Texas and Oklahoma.
Smoke can be seen along the west coast of Mexico.
Observations:
Raobs Time-section from
Lamont
and from
Norman
show moistening in the lowest 1 km on the 10th, in southerly winds.
It is unlikely that this moist air originated in New Mexico.
Westerly winds are found aloft.
NOGAPS Dynamical Forcing:
6-hourly NOGAPS Dynamics, 10-12 May
shows westerly winds over New Mexico and Oklahoma at 700 mb(upper-right panel),
but more southerly at the surface (lower-right panel).
NAAPS Aerosol Simulation:
NAAPS
resolution (1 degree) is too coarse to accurately model the smoke plume seen in the
OSEI AVHRR imagery.
However, it does capture the large-scale flow and has value in
interpreting
events
such as this one.
Another large uncertainty lies in the specification of the source.
For this simulation, smoke has been emitted continuously from the area of
Los Alamos beginning at 12 UTC 10 May, 2000 between 1 and 2 km AGL.
6-hourly NAAPS North America Simulation 9 - 11 May
The optical depth (blue shades in upper-left panel) shows
near-westerly transport from Los Alamos reaching Oklahoma by 00 UTC 11 May.
Smoke at the surface (lower-right panel) is transported
ENE from Los Alamos and misses Oklahoma.
However smoke from Central America reaches Oklahoma by 12 UTC 11 May.
This air could be both moist and smokey since it has transited the entire Gulf of Mexico.
