The view from the ground of poor Air Quality in Madison WI
The slider above (imagery courtesy Tim Wagner, CIMSS, derived from the rooftop cameras on the AOSS Building in Madison WI) compares the relatively clean air of 27 May with the very poor air of 27 June. Smoke from forest fires, mostly in Canada, has overspread the upper midwest. The motion of that smoke on 27 June is plain to see in the animation of true color imagery, below, from the CSPP Geosphere site. Smoke is especially thick over northeastern WI, and the smoke as a whole is moving southward.
There are also roof-top cameras pointing north. That comparison of 27 May and 27 June images is shown below.
Thanks for the imagery Tim!!
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GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Aerosol Optical Depth derived product images, with Ceiling/Visibility reports plotted in yellow (courtesy Scott Bachmeier, CIMSS) [click to play animated GIF| MP4]
In a sequence of GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) derived product images (above), the hazy appearance of the wildfire smoke was very pronounced in the otherwise cloud-free sky across eastern/southern Wisconsin, southern Lake Michigan, eastern Iowa and northern Illinois — and AOD values of 1.0 and higher (darker red) covered much of the region. In fact, AOD values near Milwaukee (KMKE) were close to 4.0 (below). Surface visibility at Kenosha (located in far southeastern Wisconsin) was as low as 3/4 mile.
GOES-16 Aerosol Optical Depth derived product at 1501 UTC, showing the cursor-sampled AOD value of 3.95 along with the nearby METAR report at Milwaukee KMKE [click to enlarge]
Ground-based lidar in Madison, Wisconsin revealed significant backscatter (due to the dense smoke) from the surface to an altitude of 2-3 km during much of the daytime hours (below). AOD values in the vicinity of Madison were generally in the 1.5-1.8 range during much of the day — and the surface visibility at Madison’s airport was as low as 1-1/4 miles at 19 UTC.
Surface-based lidar backscatter at Madison, Wisconsin [click to enlarge]
A Pilot Report 15 miles west of Madison MSN at 1300 UTC (below) indicated that the top of the smoke layer was at 10,000 feet (3.0 km).
GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) image at 1301 UTC, showing a cursor-sampled Pilot Report near Madison MSN [click to enlarge]
HYSPLIT model 72-hour back trajectories (below) indicated that the source region for much of the smoke within the boundary layer at Madison WI, Milwaukee WI and Chicago IL — particularly at altitudes of 500 m and 1 km — was Quebec, where wildfire activity had been high since early June.
HYSPLIT mode 72-hour back trajectories, ending at Madison WI, Milwaukee WI and Chicago IL at 1800 UTC on 27 June