On 22 June 2017 two pyroCbs formed north of Lake Baikal in eastern Russia. Himawari-8 detected the smoke plume and pyroCb cloud, as well as the fires hot spots. The first pyroCb cloud (~58.3º N, 105ºE) formed around 8:30 UTC . The second formed shortly after around 58.9º N 106.9ºE. Starting at 8:00 UTC on 22 June, the animation below shows Himawari-8 0.63 µm visible (left) and 3.9 µm shortwave IR (right) . In the shortwave IR images, the red pixels indicate very hot IR brightness temperatures exhibited by the fire source regions.
HIMAWARI-8 0.63 µm visible channel (left) and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (right) (click to play animation)
In addition, using Himawari-8 10.4 μm IR channel the cloud-top IR brightness temperatures could be found. The animation below, starting at 8:00 UTC on 22 June, shows the brightness temperature for the first pyroCb cloud reaching near -60ºC around 10:30 UTC (red color enhancement). The second pyroCb reached near -40ºC (green color enhancement) near the same time.
HIMAWARI-8 10.4 µm IR channel images (click to play animation)
A 1-km resolution NOAA-19 AVHRR 10.8 µm Infrared Window image (below;courtesy of René Servranckx) revealed a minimum cloud-top IR brightness temperature of -57.7º C (red color enhancement) for the first pyroCb and -46.1º C for the second (green color enhancement) .
NOAA-19 AVHRR 0.64 µm visible (top left), 3.7 µm shortwave IR (top right), 10.8 µm IR window (bottom left) and false-color RGB composite image (bottom right)
The smoke was detected using CALIPSO lidar data (images courtesy of Mike Fromm). The images below show the products of lidar . The smoke can be seen ~65 N which is north of the pyroCb. The first image below is the 532nm Total Attenuated Backscatter plot on 23 June from 19:07 UTC to 19:30 UTC. The smoke from this fires is indicated by a gray color. The second image is 1064 nm Total Attenuated Backscatter plot, the smoke on this plot is indicated by a gray color. The third image is the Depolarization image the smoke is indicated by a red color. The fourth image is the Attenuated Ratio plot between 1064 nm and 532 nm. The smoke is indicated by light blue 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.
CALIPSO 532 nm Total Attenuated Backscatter on 23 June
CALIPSO 1064 nm Total Attenuated Backscatter on 23 June
CALIPSO Depolarization Ration on 23 June
CALIPSO Attenuated Color Ratio between 1064 nm and 532 nm on 23 June
CALIPSO Vertical Feature Mask on 23 June