On 08 August there were two pyroCbs near Lake Baikal in Russia. The first pyroCb formed at 53.5 N 105.6 E around 6:45 UTC. Himawari-8 detected the smoke plume and clouds around the fires, as well as the fire hot spots. Starting at 04:00 UTC on August 08, the animation below shows visible (.64 μm) on the left and shortwave IR (3.9 μm) on the right (click image to play animation). In the shortwave IR images the darker black to red pixels indicate very hot IR brightness temperatures exhibited by the fire source region.
Himawari-8 0.64 μm visible (left) and 3.9 μm shortwave IR (right) images (click to play animation)
The next two pyroCbs are at 52.6 N 108.5 E at 6:10 UTC, and 52.8 N 109.1 E at 7:30 UTC. Starting at 04:00 UTC on 08 August, the animation below shows visible (.64 μm) on the left and shortwave IR (3.9 μm) on the right (click image to play animation). In the shortwave IR images the darker black to red pixels indicate very hot IR brightness temperatures exhibited by the fire source region.
Himawari-8 0.64 μm visible (left) and 3.9 μm shortwave IR (right) images (click to play animation)
In addition, using Himawari-8 10.4 μm IR channel imagery the minimum cloud-top IR brightness temperatures could be found. The animation below, starting at 04:00 UTC on 08 August, shows that the first pyroCb reached around -51.3 ºC (yellow color enhancement) at 09:11 UTC. The second pyroCb reaches about the same temperature of -49.1 ºC (lime green color enhancement) at 09:11 UTC. The third pyroCB reaches -46.4 ºC (lime green color enhancement) at 09:11UTC
Himawari-8 10.4 μm IR images (click to play animation)
In addition, there were another two pyroCbs near 53.6 N 107.3 E at 8:30 UTC and at 53.1 N 109.5 E at 9:00 UTC. Himawari-8 10.4 μm IR channel imagery the minimum cloud-top IR brightness temperatures could be found. The animation below, starting at 09:00 UTC on 08 August, shows that the first pyroCb reached around -54 ºC (orange color enhancement) at 15:20 UTC and the second pyroCb reaching -42.3ºC (lime green color enhancement) .
imawari-8 10.4 μm IR images (click to play animation)
OMPS AI index images (courtesy of Colin Seftor) shows the transport of smoke. The first is the image on 08 August shows a high AI index of 9.8 at 53.55 N 106.02 E. This value is around the fire hotspot. The second image has a high AI index of 18.4 at 51.89 N 110.53 E. This is just southeast of the fire hotspot and is consistent with the motion of the smoke plume in the above animations.
OMPS Aerosol Index image on 08 August (click to enlarge)
OMPS Aerosol Index image on 09 August (click to enlarge)
To further investigate the transport of smoke from this fire CALIPSO was used. This LIDAR shows the height of the clouds from the wildfire. The first image below is the 532nm Total Attenuated Backscatter plot on 08 August from 05:15 UTC to 05:37 UTC. The smoke from this fire can be seen extending from 51 N to 53 N indicated by a dark grey and red color. The second image is 1064 nm Total Attenuated Backscatter plot, the smoke on this plot is indicated by a red color. The third image is the Depolarization image the smoke is indicated by a blue/green color. The fourth image is the Attenuated Ratio plot between 1064 nm and 532 nm. The smoke is indicated by the magenta pixels. The fifth image is the Vertical Feature Mask. This plot shows the different features that are in the atmosphere, the smoke is attributed as a cloud on this plot and is indicated by a light blue color. The last image shows the subtype of the aerosols that have been detected by the LIDAR. This shows that the aerosols that the LIDAR has detected are smoke (indicated by the black pixels) extending from 51 N to 53 N.
CALIPSO 532 nm Total Attenuated Backscatter on 08 August (click to enlarge)
CALIPSO 1064 nm Total Attenuated Backscatter on 08 August (click to enlarge)
CALIPSO Depolarization Ration on 08 August (click to enlarge)
CALIPSO Attenuated Color Ratio between 1064 nm and 532 nm on 08 August (click to enlarge image)
CALIPSO Vertical Feature Mask on 08 August (click to enlarge image)
CALIPSO Aerosol Subtype plot on 08 August (click to enlarge image)
1 Comment
Great post, Anna.
It looks like an even more impressive pyroCb started later in the day on 8 August. It is east of the big fire east of the one at 53N, 106E, close to ~107.5E. At ~11:50 UTC a multi-hour pyroCb starts and goes until ~18-19 UTC, when the cold cloud moves away from the fire. Almost all of its life was after sunset. It is this cloud that CALIPSO sliced through…it persists in IR until ~06 UTC 9 Aug.
And then there is yet another pyroCb, this one on the east coast of Lake Baikal, starting some time after 18 UTC. It is a smaller one than the above one, but it looks like two distinct pyroCb pulses come off this fire. This was a totally night-time affair.