01:09 How Wildfire Smoke Affects Your Health People in the western U.S. are breathing some of the worst air in the world. Here’s a look at how it impacts your health.

At a Glance Smoke from Australian wildfires was detected by satellite in South America on Monday.

This smoke was carried by the jet stream at least 7,500 miles across the South Pacific Ocean.

We've seen several similar examples over the past several years.

Smoke from the massive Australian wildfires has crossed the South Pacific Ocean and was detected in parts of South America, thousands of miles away, satellite imagery revealed Monday.

Monday morning, NOAA's GOES-East high-resolution visible satellite imagery detected a faint area of lofted smoke from the Australian wildfires was over parts of Chile and Argentina. A second area of smoke was several hundred miles southwest of the Pacific coast of southern Chile.

This smoke led to hazy skies over some areas near the Chilean capital of Santiago on Monday.

By Tuesday, the smoke blanketed Buenos Aires, Argentina and spread into the South Atlantic Ocean.

Imagery from the Suomi NPP satellite showed the Australian smoke plume marching across the Pacific Ocean from Dec. 30 through Sunday.

(MORE: Satellite Images Show Massive Burn Areas From Devastating Australian Bushfires )

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/aussie-smoke-pac-30dec-5jan-comp.gif?v=at&w=485&h=273" srcset="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/aussie-smoke-pac-30dec-5jan-comp.gif?v=at&w=485&h=273 400w, https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/aussie-smoke-pac-30dec-5jan-comp.gif?v=ap&w=980&h=551 800w" > Visible imagery from the Suomi NPP satellite Dec. 30, 2019, through Jan. 5, 2020, showing plumes of Australian wildfire smoke, denoted by the orange arrows, marching across the southern Pacific Ocean. (NASA Worldview)

In the satellite loop above, you can see various low-pressure systems over the ocean, denoted by white curls of cloud cover, ingest some of the wildfire smoke.

There were multiple smoke plumes, one of which traversed the Pacific Ocean to South America, and another thick plume that originated off Australia this past weekend. This second plume brought an eerie, orange pall to skies over New Zealand last weekend.

The bushfire smoke pumped thousands of feet in the air was carried by stronger winds aloft along the typical South Pacific storm track about 7,500 miles from eastern Australia to Chile and Argentina.

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/aussie-smoke-pacific-overlay-6jan20.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273" srcset="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/aussie-smoke-pacific-overlay-6jan20.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273 400w, https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/aussie-smoke-pacific-overlay-6jan20.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551 800w" > Analysis of smoke plumes (in yellow) on Jan. 6, 2020, spanning roughly 7,500 miles across the southern Pacific Ocean. The approximate location of the south Pacific jet stream is highlighted by the blue, purple and white arrows.

"The hotter the fire, the higher the smoke plume can penetrate into the atmosphere," said Heather Holmes, assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, and expert in air pollution in an interview with weather.com.

"If the smoke is injected higher into the atmosphere, it will be transported farther."

Holmes also said the size of particles in plumes are important for determining how far they travel.

"If you have really large ash particles, those drop out sooner. Smaller particles, including gases condensed onto particles, can stay in the atmosphere longer."

The Australian wildfires have charred more than 41,000 square miles since September, an area larger than Kentucky, and have claimed at least two dozen lives.

(MORE: Dozens of Fires Still Wreaking Havoc; Prime Minister Pledges Billions to Help )

Recent Distant Smoke Plumes

As incredible as this sounds, it's not unusual for wildfire smoke to be transported thousands of miles downstream.

In mid-August 2018, Subtropical Storm Ernesto in the North Atlantic Ocean was nearly surrounded by smoke generated by wildfires in western Canada and California almost 5,000 miles away .

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://s.w-x.co/ernesto-smoke-dust-16aug18-10z.gif" srcset="https://s.w-x.co/ernesto-smoke-dust-16aug18-10z.gif 400w, https://s.w-x.co/ernesto-smoke-dust-16aug18-10z.gif 800w" > GOES-East GeoColor visible satellite image showing wildfire smoke from Canada and the western U.S. almost encircling Subtropical Storm Ernesto on Aug. 16, 2018 at 6:00 a.m. EDT. A Saharan dust plume can also be seen east of Ernesto. (CIRA/RAMMB)

One month before that, Siberian wildfire smoke was detected over the northeastern U.S.

All that is needed is a sufficient density of persistent wildfires belching dense smoke high in the atmosphere to be transported downstream by stronger winds.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.