PyroCb in Wyoming

GOES-15 Visible (top), Shortwave Infrared (middle) and Infrared Window (bottom) images [click to play animation]

A pyroCb cloud developed from the Maple Fire in far northwestern Wyoming during the late afternoon hours on 15 August 2016; GOES-15 (GOES-West) 0.63 µm Visible, 3.9 µm Shortwave Infrared and 10.7 µm Infrared Window images (above; also available as an MP4) showed the fire hot spot (red pixels on the 3.9 µm images) and the pyroCb cloud (shades of green to yellow on the 10.7 µm images) as it drifted southward then southwestward over far eastern Idaho by 0200 UTC on 16 August.

After sunset, GOES-15 3.9 µm Shortwave Infrared and 10.7 µm Infrared Window images (below; also available as an MP4) showed a gradual decrease in the intensity and areal coverage of the 3.9 µm fire hot spot, along with a continued cooling trend of the 10.7 µm pyroCb cloud-top IR brightness temperatures (which reached -49º C at 0341 and 0345 UTC).

GOES-15 Shortwave Infrared (top) and Infrared Window (bottom) images [click to play animation]

NOAA-18 Visible (upper left), Shortwave Infrared (upper right), Infrared Window (lower left) and false-color RGB composite (lower right) images [click to enlarge]