PyroCb in Russia

On 01 July a pyroCb formed in Russia. HIMAWARI-8 detected the smoke plume and pyroCb cloud, as well as the fire hot spot. The pyroCb (58.4 N 110.4E) occurred at 6:30 UTC . Starting at 5:30 UTC on 01 July, the animation below shows visible (.63 μm) on the left and shortwave IR (3.9 μm) on the right (click image to play animation). In the shortwave IR images the red pixels indicate very hot IR brightness temperatures exhibited by the fire source region.

HIMAWARI-8 0.63 µm visible channel (left) and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (right) (click to play animation)

In addition, using HIMWARI-8 10.4 μm IR channel the cloud-top IR brightness temperature could be found. The animation below, starting at 8:30 UTC on 01 July, shows the brightness temperature for the pyroCb was -49.5ºC around 9:20 UTC (yellow color enhancement).

HIMAWARI-8 10.4 µm IR channel images (click to play animation)

The smoke was detected using CALIPSO lidar data (images courtesy of Mike Fromm). The images below show the products of lidar and the smoke can be seen ~45. The first image below is the 532nm Total Attenuated Backscatter plot on 02 July from 17:15 UTC to 17:37 UTC. The smoke from this fires is indicated by a red color. The second image is 1064 nm Total Attenuated Backscatter plot, the smoke on this plot is indicated by a yellow color. The third image is the Depolarization image the smoke is indicated by a blue color. The fourth image is the Attenuated Ratio plot between 1064 nm and 532 nm. The smoke is indicated by red 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 final image is the aerosol subtype plot, this plot shows the different aerosol subtypes in the atmosphere. The smoke is indicated by a black color on this image.