The GOES-16 satellite image reveals smoke cascading into New York and Pennsylvania on the morning of June 7, 2023.
In the face of raging fires in Quebec, the eastern U.S. is grappling with one of the most severe smoke invasions witnessed in decades.
In recent years, smoke from Canadian wildfires has regularly drifted over the northeastern U.S. during summer. However, it often remains unnoticed as it stays relatively high in the atmosphere. June 2023 proved to be an exception. In the month’s initial week, massive quantities of smoke from Quebec’s fires flowed south into the eastern U.S., significantly impairing the air quality for millions of inhabitants.
Quebec’s fire smoke is ordinarily carried eastwards by the wind and out to sea. However, in June 2023, an enduring coastal low near Prince Edward Island redirected the smoke southwards into the United States. The image captured by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16 (GOES-16), operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with NASA’s assistance, depicts the smoke’s advance into New York and Pennsylvania on June 7, 2023.
The smoke that reached the northeastern U.S. from Canada in 2023, emanating from western Canada’s fires, mainly settled at high altitudes. However, given the proximity of the Quebec fires to the northeast U.S., a considerably larger portion of the smoke infiltrated the surface-level air. Around the time of the image, Syracuse, New York, witnessed PM2.5 levels surpassing 400 micrograms per cubic meter of air – the highest since systematic measurements commenced in 1999.
“The surface smoke pollution from New York to the D.C. region is arguably the most severe since at least July 2002, when a comparable situation arose due to fires in Quebec,” stated Ryan Stauffer, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “This event matches and might even exceed the smoke pollution observed in 2002.”
Stauffer reported that on June 6, the PM2.5 air quality index in New York City exceeded 175 (code red), surpassing the previous 2002 record of 167. On June 7, 2023, “New York City was joined by the D.C. region, which experienced some of its most polluted air in the last quarter-century,” he added.
The morning Sun reddened and skies turned gray over NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center due to the smoke on June 7, 2023.
NASA satellites like Terra, Aqua, and Aura are monitoring the event, gathering data on the smoke particles’ impact on atmospheric light absorption and reflection (aerosol optical depth), while the CALIPSO mission records the smoke height. Simultaneously, ground-based MPLNET and AERONET data from NASA indicates significant near-surface smoke.
This level of ground-level smoke is rare in the eastern U.S., prompting widespread observation of the effects of smoke on sunlight. “Smoke particles scatter and absorb shorter wavelengths of sunlight more readily than longer ones, leading to subdued red sunrises and sunsets during heavy smoke,” Stauffer elaborated. “In extreme situations like this week, the Sun may even be completely obscured.”
The photo above, taken by Colin Seftor, an atmospheric scientist at the center, depicts the morning Sun turned red and the gray skies over NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on June 7, 2023. At the time, MPLNET data revealed a multi-layered smoke plume overhead, with dense smoke near the surface extending to about 3 kilometers, followed by a thinner layer at around 6 kilometers, and a faint smoke layer at approximately 12 kilometers.
Observing the MPLNET data, Michael Fromm, an atmospheric scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, noted, “Each layer has its own unique story, which would be fascinating to decipher. The layer lurking at 12 kilometers is a month old and can 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).
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