Category Archives: Suomi NPP

PyroCbs in southeastern Australia

2.5-miute Rapid Scan JMA Himawari-8 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above) showed the formation of 2 small, fairly short-lived pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds spawned by large, hot bushfires in southern New South Wales, Australia on 01 February 2020. The pyroCb clouds developed in advance of an approaching […]

Another pyroCb outbreak in Australia

As Australian bushfires flared up again across far eastern Victoria and far southeastern New South Wales (along and ahead of a cold frontal passage) on 04 January 2020, a JMA Himawari-8 Target Sector was positioned over that region (providing images at 2.5-minute intervals) — “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images displayed the large smoke plumes with […]

Multi-day pyroCb outbreak across southeastern Australia

JMA Himawari-8 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and Longwave Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above) showed a large bushfire (dark black to red pixels in the 3.9 µm imagery) in far southeastern Victoria, Australia — which quickly burned its way to the coast and produced 3 distinct pulses of pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds on 29 December 2019. […]

PyroCb in Australia

JMA Himawari-8 AHI “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above) showed the development of a pyroCb cloud produced by bush fires northwest of Sydney, Australia (station identifier YSSY) on 22 November 2019 (surface analyses). In the 3.9 µm images, hot thermal signatures of the bush fires […]

PyroCb over Bolivia

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed the formation of a pyroCb cloud over far southeastern Bolivia on 18 August 2019. The small anvil cloud briefly surpassed the -40ºC pyroCb threshold from 1800-1820 UTC, attaining a minimum cloud-top infrared brightness temperature of -45.2ºC […]

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, […]