Smoke from Canada's wildfires darkens Europe's skies

[Mary Wilson]

June 27, 202311:58 AM ET
By Bill Chappell

A plume of smoke stretches from North America across more than 2,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean in the latest international impact from Canada's large and persistent wildfires.

NASA Earth Observatory​

Weather forecasts in Portugal are calling for skies "obscured by smoke particles" on Tuesday as Canada's persistent wildfires begin to affect Europe.

The plume of smoke and soot stretches for thousands of miles from the province of Quebec across the Atlantic Ocean, according to satellite images NASA released on Monday.

The enormous band of smoke began reaching the Azores islands on Sunday and reached western Europe on Monday, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere, or IPMA. The smoke is also affecting Spain, France and other countries to the north.

​ Smoke isn't posing the same health risks in Europe

Unlike the low-lying smoke that triggered hazardous air quality alerts in the U.S. earlier this month, the smoke that has reached Europe seems to be hanging higher in the air, at 1,100 meters (3,609 feet) and above, according to climate agencies. ...

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/27/1184494482/smoke-canada-wildfire-europe-air
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[Mary Wilson]

NASA. Canadian Smoke Reaches Europe

June 26, 2023

Smoke from wildland fires, which have been burning in the Canadian province of Quebec for weeks, has crossed the Atlantic Ocean and darkened skies in southwestern Europe.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image in the morning (11:10 Universal Time) on June 26, 2023. At the time, smoke drifted over northern Portugal and Spain. It also reached northward over other European countries beyond the scope of this image.
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The smoke’s widespread reach is apparent in the map above. It shows a plume of black carbon particles—commonly called soot—spanning eastward from North America and across more than 2,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. The black carbon density data come from NASA’s GEOS forward processing (GEOS-FP) model, which assimilates data from satellite, aircraft, and ground-based observing systems. In addition to making use of satellite observations of aerosols and fires, GEOS-FP incorporates meteorological data like air temperature, moisture, and winds to project the plume’s behavior.

Hazy skies in Europe were also observed by a global network of ground sensors called the Aerosols Robotic Network, or AERONET. The network contains more than 500 Sun photometer instruments that measure aerosol optical depth (AOD) around the world. On the morning of June 26, AERONET sensors in northern Spain and France measured AODs greater than 0.5. The AOD in these areas is typically close to 0.1. ...

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/151507/canadian-smoke-reaches-europe
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