Another PyroCb in Russia

On 27 August there was a pyroCb in Russia at 56.8 N 126.8 E. Himawari-8 detected the smoke plume and clouds around the fires, as well as the fire hot spots. Starting at 08:00 UTC on August 27, 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)

Himawari-8 10.4 μm IR channel imagery the minimum cloud-top IR brightness temperatures could be found. The animation below, starting at 08:00 UTC on 27 August, shows that the pyroCb reached around -47.6 ºC (lime green color enhancement) around 10:30 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 27 August from 04:07 UTC to 04:30 UTC, which is a few hours before the pyroCb formed but smoke can be seen. The smoke from this fire can be seen around 56 N indicated faintly by a white color. The second image is 1064 nm Total Attenuated Backscatter plot, the smoke on this plot is indicated by a white 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) around 56 N.