On 23 August there was a pyroCb in Russia. This pyroCb formed around 51 N 95 E at 09:00 UTC. Himawari-8 detected the smoke plume and clouds around the fires, as well as the fire hot spots. Starting at 09:00 UTC on August 23, 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 09:00 UTC on 23 August, shows that the pyroCb reached -57.3 ºC (orange color enhancement) at 09:39 UTC.
Himawari-8 10.4 μm IR images (click to play animation)
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 23 August from 06:22 UTC to 06:45 UTC, which is a few hours before the pyroCb formed. The smoke from this fire can be seen extending from 55 N to 59 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 last 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
CALIPSO 532 nm Total Attenuated Backscatter on 23 August (click to enlarge)
CALIPSO 1064 nm Total Attenuated Backscatter on 23 August (click to enlarge)
CALIPSO Depolarization Ration on 23 August (click to enlarge)
CALIPSO Attenuated Color Ratio between 1064 nm and 532 nm on 23 August (click to enlarge image)
CALIPSO Vertical Feature Mask on 23 August (click to enlarge image)