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Natural gas explosion and fire in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) image and Fire Temperature derived product [click to play animation]

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) imagery and Fire Temperature derived product [click to play animation | MP4]

An explosion triggered by a damaged natural gas main in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin occurred around 0005 UTC / 7:05 pm CDT on 10 July 2018 (media story). Layered cloudiness was passing over the region at the time of the initial explosion, but once the clouds cleared a thermal signature (blue pixel) was seen from 0247 to 0342 UTC on the GOES-16 (GOES-East) Fire Temperature product (above) as the fire burned into the nighttime hours. The maximum Fire Temperature value was 537.6 K at 0332 UTC / 10:32 pm CDT.

A thermal anomaly or “hot spot” (dark black pixels) was apparent on 1-km resolution Terra MODIS Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) imagery (below) at 0338 UTC / 10:38 pm CDT. The maximum infrared brightness temperature on the MODIS image was 335.4 K.

Terra MODIS Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) image, with plots of surface observations in yellow [click to enlarge]

Terra MODIS Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) image, with plots of surface observations in yellow [click to enlarge]

A very subtle thermal anomaly (darker gray pixels) was still evident after 07 UTC / 2 am CDT on Suomi NPP and Aqua MODIS Shortwave Infrared images (below).

Terra MODIS, Suomi NPP VIIRS and Aqua MODIS Shortwave Infrared images [click to enlarge]

Terra MODIS, Suomi NPP VIIRS and Aqua MODIS Shortwave Infrared images [click to enlarge]



Categories: Aqua, Fire detection, GOES-16, MODIS, Suomi NPP, Terra, VIIRS