Created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), HRRR-Smoke is an experimental system and the first of its kind. Unlike current models, HRRR-Smoke doesn’t rely on satellite imagery of current smoke position in order to predict where that smoke might be in the next two days. Instead, it uses sophisticated weather models that gather data such as changes in precipitation, temperature, wind and water vapor to figure out how the smoke will move around.
In addition to the locations of the actual blazes, the map displays two data layers: “Near Surface Smoke” and “Vertically Integrated Smoke.” The former shows the density of smoke at 8 meters (about 26 feet) off the ground — this is the stuff you’re breathing in, but it fortunately only covers small parts of the country on the map. The latter shows the density of smoke in 25-kilometer-high columns (over 3,200 feet) — at these levels, the map shows most of the U.S. covered in smoke, although it’s too high up for us to be breathing it in.
“This is really the first resource that was out there that tells you something about where the smoke you see comes from, really, and what the forecast is,” said atmospheric scientist Joost de Gouw with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
