On 16 July 2017 two pyroCbs formed in the British Columbia. GOES-15 detected the smoke plume and pyroCb cloud, as well as the fires hot spots. The first pyroCb cloud (~51.8º N, 122.8ºW) formed around 21:00 UTC on 16 July . The second formed shortly after at 23:00 UTC around 52º N 122.5ºE. Starting at 20:00 UTC on 16 July, the animation below shows GOES-15 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.
GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel (left) and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (right) (click to play animation)
In addition, using GOES-15 10.7 μm IR channel the cloud-top IR brightness temperature could be found. The animation below, starting at 21:00 UTC on 16 July, shows the brightness temperature for the first pyroCb cloud reaching near -42ºC at 21:30 UTC (green color enhancement). The second reaches around the same brightness temperature at 0:30 UTC on 17 July (green color enhancement).
GOES-15 10.7 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 -49.1º C (green color enhancement) for the first pyroCb at 21:27 UTC on 16 July.
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)
Another 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 -50.6º C (yellow color enhancement) for the second pyroCb at 1:07 UTC on 17 July.
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)