GOES-13 Visible and Shortwave IR Images (Click to Play Animation)
The Silver Fire continued to burn on June 27, 2013 in Southwestern New Mexico. GOES-13 0.63 micrometer visible imagery (above, left panel; click image to play) show a smoke plume erupting from the desert during the late morning and early afternoon hours of the 27th. After the smoke plume is evident, a large pyrocumulonimbus forms over the hotspot and drifts south-southwestward along the mean flow. Also, GOES-13 3.9 micrometer shortwave IR imagery (above, right panel; click image to play) showed a well defined hot spot before and during the formation and growth of the pyrocumulonimbus cloud. Note the proliferation of red pixels during the late morning and early afternoon hours in the IR imagery. This is due to the ground temperatures reaching extreme levels in parts of New Mexico and not due to fires.
Corresponding GOES-13 10.7 micrometer longwave IR imagery (below; click image to play) showed the development of a pyrocumulonimbus cloud during the late afternoon hours of June 27, 2013. This animation showed cloud tops reaching -50 degrees Celsius during the peak of the pyrocumulonimbus growth. The debris from the pyroCB later drift southward and reach temperatures as cold as -60 degrees C.
