The morning of March 8, NOAA detected three fires in northern Virginia which were sending smoke clouds into D.C. and Maryland. The source of the smoke was controlled burns being conducted by the U.S. Forestry Service. NOAA was able to detect these fires and trace the paths of their smoke plumes using the GOES-16 satellite. With this technology, NOAA serves the public by alerting them to these poor air quality events and can track what areas are affected by them.
This video was made using animations captured from the AerosolWatch website using GOES-16 GeoColor and aerosol optical depth (AOD) products. It also used AERONET AOD from NASA GSFC data and hourly averaged PM2.5 data from the EPA for the charts. Video produced by the STAR SMCD Air Quality Team, with special thanks to Ryan Theurer.
As reported by the Washington Post