PyroCb in Russia

On 01 July 2017 a pyroCb formed in Russia. Himawari-8 detected the smoke plume and pyroCb cloud, as well as the fires hot spots. The pyroCb cloud (~62.5º N, 123ºE) formed around 5:00 UTC . Starting at 4:30 UTC on 01 July, 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)

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 5:00 UTC on 01 July, shows the brightness temperature for the pyroCb cloud reaching near  -57ºC around 6:30 UTC (red color enhancement).

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

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 ofRené Servranckx) revealed a minimum cloud-top IR brightness temperature of -57.7º C (red color enhancement) for the pyroCb at 5:44 UTC.

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)

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)

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