A Resource Catalog and Discussion Forum on

Smoke from Central American Fires

The 1998 Central American fires are much more intense than the usual springtime fires in the region. Since May 10th, the fires have intensified and thick palls of smoke have drifted into the U.S. and Canada.The measured smoke concentrations have exceeded the air quality standard for particulate matter and this has triggered emergency air quality management responses, including public health alerts. The research community has followed the fires and the smoke with keen interest using UV, visible and infrared satellite sensors.

The goal of this interactive website is to serve as a user-maintained catalog exisitng web-based information and to facilitate a smoke-related discussion Forum, with a focus air quality managment issues. For detailed information on any topic, readers are encouraged to visit the original web-based sources. Interested participants should register with the People page, submit web links to relevent reports, data and and tools in the Resources section and to participate in the technical or regulatory discussion.

Bulletins

June 12: Draft Summary of the Central Amarica Smoke Event - A Slide Show . Please use the Comment page for feedback.