GOES-18 Dust RGB images, from 1300 UTC on 20 October to 1340 UTC on 22 October [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Strong gap winds accelerating out of the Copper River Valley along the southern coast of Alaska were lofting fine particles of glacial silt/sand, and transporting those aerosols southward across the Gulf of Alaska during 20-22 October 2023. 10-minute GOES-18 (GOES-West) Dust Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid (above) displayed the plume of airborne silt/dust (shades of pink) during that 48-hour period.

During the daylight hours on 21 October, GOES-18 True Color RGB images (below) showed the long plume as it curled southeastward across the Gulf of Alaska. The hazy plume of blowing silt/dust could be seen moving down the narrow Copper River Valley before emerging from the coast.

GOES-18 True Color RGB images, from 1640 UTC on 21 October to 0130 UTC on 22 October [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

The plume briefly drifted across Middleton Island, where it reduced the surface visibility to 6 miles between 1300-1500 UTC on 22 October (below).

Plot of surface observation data from Middleton Island [click to enlarge]

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