PyroCb in Oregon

| September 4, 2017

On 04 September 2017 a pyroCb formed in Oregon. GOES-15 detected the smoke plumes and pyroCb cloud, as well as the fires hot spot. The pyroCb cloud (~45.7º N, 121.9ºW) formed around 23:00 UTC . Starting at 22:00 UTC on 04 September, 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)

GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel (left) and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (right) (click to play animation)

Usually GOES-15 10.7 μm IR channel is used to find  the cloud-top IR brightness temperature. However, the resolution of this satellite did not provide a brightness temperature lower than -40ºC.

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 -49.8º C (yellow color enhancement) for the pyroCb at 23:33 UTC on 04 September.

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)

PyroCb in British Columbia

| September 4, 2017

On 04 September 2017 a pyroCb formed in British Columbia. GOES-15 detected the smoke plumes and pyroCb cloud, as well as the fires hot spot. The pyroCb cloud (~50.2º N, 115.1ºW) formed around 1:00 UTC . Starting at 0:00 UTC on 04 September, 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)

GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel (left) and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (right) (click to play animation)

Usually GOES-15 10.7 μm IR channel is used to find  the cloud-top IR brightness temperature. However, the resolution of this satellite did not provide a brightness temperature lower than -40ºC.

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 -53.6º C (red color enhancement) for the pyroCb at 1:12 UTC on 04 September.

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)

PyroCbs in Montana

| September 3, 2017

On 03 September 2017 two pyroCbs formed in the Montana. GOES-15 detected the smoke plume and pyroCb cloud, as well as the fires hot spots. The first pyroCb cloud (~45.3º N, 115.1ºW) formed around 23:00 UTC on 03 September . The second formed shortly after around 45.8º N  114.9ºE at 23:30 UTC on 03 September. Starting at 22:00 UTC on 03 September, 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)

GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel (left) and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (right) (click to play animation)

Usually GOES-15 10.7 μm IR channel is used to find  the cloud-top IR brightness temperature. However, the resolution of this satellite did not provide a brightness temperature lower than -40ºC.

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 -45.3º C (green color enhancement) for the first pyroCb and -45.7º C for the second (green color enhancement) at 0:43 UTC on 04 September.

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)

PyroCbs in Oregon

| August 30, 2017

On 29 August 2017 two pyroCbs formed in the Oregon. GOES-15 detected the smoke plume and pyroCb cloud, as well as the fires hot spots. The first pyroCb cloud (~44º N, 121.1ºW) formed around 20:15 UTC on 29 August . The second formed shortly after around 43.8º N  121.4ºE at 0:00 UTC on 30 August. Starting at 20:00 UTC on 29 August, 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)

GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel (left) and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (right) (click to play animation)

Usually GOES-15 10.7 μm IR channel is used to find  the cloud-top IR brightness temperature. However, the resolution of this satellite did not provide a brightness temperature lower than -40ºC.

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 -42.7º C (green color enhancement) for the first pyroCb and -42.3º C for the second (green color enhancement) at 1:07 UTC on 30 August.

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)

Another pyroCb in Russia

| August 15, 2017

On 15 August 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 (~62.8º N, 122.4ºE) formed around 3:10 UTC . Starting at 2:30 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 3:00 UTC on 15 August, shows the brightness temperature for the pyroCb cloud reaching near  -57ºC around 4:40 UTC (red color enhancement).