Category Archives: Asia

PyroCb in Russia

On 30 April, JMA Himawari-8 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above) showed the formation of the first known pyroCb of the 2019 Northern Hemisphere wildfire season. The pyroCb developed within the warm sector of an approaching midlatitude cyclone (surface analyses) in the Russian Far East, […]

Wildfire Smoke over Asia

Note: even though this large-scale smoke event was not pyroCb-related, we feel that it is important enough to document in terms of the long-range transport of biomass burning smoke and the potential implications on weather and climate far from the fire source regions. Himawari-8 shows the smoke over the northeastern part of Asia. The animation […]

Wildfire smoke: from Alaska to Norway, via the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans

Note: even though this large-scale smoke event was not pyroCb-related, we feel that it is important enough to document in terms of the long-range transport of biomass burning smoke and the potential implications on weather and climate far from the fire source regions. EUMETSAT Meteosat-10 High Resolution Visible (0.8 µm) images (above; click to play […]

PyroCb in the Irkutsk region of Siberia

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 […]

Fires in eastern Russia and Mongolia

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 […]

PyroCb over Siberia on 22 June 2013

On 22 June 2013, a cluster of wildfires occurred across a large region in Siberia.  These fires were centered at approximately 63 N 115 E, and were quite vigorous in their smoke production. This activity was enhanced by the presence of strong updrafts that developed with the fires throughout the day. This activity is noticeable […]