On 14 August 2017 three pyroCbs formed in Russia. Himawari-8 detected the smoke plume and pyroCb cloud, as well as the fire hot spots. The first pyroCb cloud (~63.2º N, 117.1ºE) formed around 06:30 UTC . The second pyroCb (~62.8º N, 122.4ºE) formed around 07:00 UTC. The third pyroCb (~61.5º N, 122.1ºE) formed around 8:10 UTC. Starting at 06:00 UTC, the animation below shows Himawari-8 0.63 µm visible (left) and 3.9 µm shortwave IR (right). In the shortwave IR images, the red pixels indicate very hot IR brightness temperatures exhibited by the fire source regions.
Himawaari-8 0.63 µm visible channel (left) and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (right) (click to play animation)
In addition, using Himawari-8 10.4 μm IR channel imagery the cloud-top IR brightness temperatures can be determined. The animation below, starting at0 7:30 UTC on 14 August, shows the brightness temperature for the first pyroCb cloud reaching near -54ºC around 09:00 UTC (orange color enhancement), reaching -52ºC (orange color enhancement) for the second pyroCb, and reaching -50ºC (yellow color enhancement) for the third pyroCb.
HIMAWARI-8 10.4 µm IR channel images (click to play animation)
A 1-km resolution NOAA-19 AVHRR 10.8 µm Infrared Window image (below; courtesy of René Servranckx) revealed a minimum cloud-top IR brightness temperature of -60.9º C (red color enhancement) for the first pyroCb at 09:39 UTC. Also the second image shows the minimum cloud-top IR brightness temperature of -59.2º C (red color enhancement) at 07:59 UTC for the second pyroCb and -54.5º C (red color enhancement) for the third pyroCb.
NOAA-19 AVHRR 0.64 µm visible (top left), 3.7 µm shortwave IR (top right), 10.8 µm IR window (bottom left) and false-color RGB composite image (bottom right)
NOAA-19 AVHRR 0.64 µm visible (far left), 3.7 µm shortwave IR (middle left), 10.8 µm IR window (middle right) and false-color RGB composite image (far right)