On 07 June 2014, McIDAS images of 1-km resolution GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (above; click image to play animation) showed that the Two Bulls Fire just west of Bend, Oregon (station identifier KBDN) began to burn an area large enough to be detected by satellite around 20:00 […]
The first unambiguous pyroCb event of the 2014 Northern Hemisphere wildfire season occurred in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, Russia on 18 May 2014. Korean COMS-1 satellite 0.675 µm visible channel images (above; click image to play animation; also available as an MP4 movie file) showed an increasing amount of smoke output from numerous fires […]
MTSAT-2 0.68 µm visible channel and 3.75 µm shortwave IR channel images (above; click image to play animation) showed that numerous wildfires had developed over far southeastern Russia (near the Russia/Mongolia/China border) during the day on 29 March 2014. A portion of Lake Baikal is outlined in blue in the far upper left corner of […]
An extended period of hot, dry weather led to the development of multiple large bushfires across parts of southeastern Australia, some of which began to produce pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds during the 15-16 January 2014 period. McIDAS images of MTSAT-2 0.68 µm visible channel and 3.75 µm shortwave IR channel data (above; click image to play […]
Update 10/21/13: While there’s still no clear indication of pyroconvection from the MTSAT imagery, the Sydney fires have continued to burn over the weekend, belching large quantities of smoke over the western Pacific. The MTSAT-2 visible and shortwave infrared loop (below; click image to play animation) contains hourly images from 00:32UTC on Oct. 17 to 16:32UTC on […]
Mike Fromm (NRL) coined the term “pyrobubbles”, and pointed out 3 examples that occured on 16 August 2013. We shall examine each of thse 3 cases using GOES-15 (GOES-West) imagery. The first pyrobubble originaled from a fire near the Idaho/Montana border; GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel images (above; click image to play animation) showed the […]
