NASA Shows Fires Birthing Air Particles With Power to Impact Climate

Aerosols are small particles that have an outsized impact on weather and climate—and they're collecting in the skies over the West,  NASA Goddard warned Thursday.

Dangerous fires raging across the United States have caused a surplus of smoke, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. The observatory has released an image depicting the concentration of tiny particles—called aerosols—in the skies above the continental United States.

The western fires are affecting air quality as far away as the East Coast, according to "The Smoke Blog" hosted by the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, as reported by NASA's Earth Observatory.

NASA explains the image shows aerosol concentrations in shades of red and yellow, with the highest concentrations in deep red and the lowest in light yellow. Grays represent clouds or areas where reliable data was not available.

In the image, NASA explains the aerosol signal is strong to the north and east of the fires in Nevada and Utah, specifically the North Schell, Dump, and Wood Hollow fires. It also shows that the thick smoke plumes from wildfires across Colorado have moved east and south into the plains states.

Further south in Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico, NASA says it is unclear whether the aerosols were blown in from the distant fires, if there is local burning, or whether they were caused by dust storms, which are also a result of hot, dry, and windy weather.