Ferguson Fire in central California
![Visible images from GOES-15 (0.63 µm, left), GOES-17 (0.64 µm, center) and GOES-16 (0.64 µm, right) [click to play animation | MP4]](https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/07/180714_goes15_goes17_goes16_visible_Ferguson_Fire_CA_anim.gif)
Visible images from GOES-15 (0.63 µm, left), GOES-17 (0.64 µm, center) and GOES-16 (0.64 µm, right) [click to play animation | MP4]
* GOES-17 imagery shown here are preliminary and non-operational *
A comparison of Visible images from GOES-15 (GOES-West), GOES-17 and GOES-16 (GOES-East) on 14 July 2018 is shown above — in addition to thunderstorms over the high terrain of the Sierra Nevada, the development of a pyrocumulus cloud (with a small overshooting top) can be seen over the Ferguson Fire that had been burning for nearly a day near Yosemite National Park in central California.
Images from GOES-16/17 are at 5-minute intervals, while image intervals from the older GOES-15 satellite range from 5-30 minutes. The improved spatial resolution of the GOES-16/17 0.64 µm visible imagery (0.5 km at satellite sub-point, compared to 1.0 km for GOES-15) allowed finer details of the overshooting top to be seen — and the improved image-to-image navigation of the new GOES-16/17 satellites was also apparent (note the significant navigation errors in a few of the GOES-15 images).
A photo from the ground (below) showed a large pyrocumulus cloud towering over the top of the dense smoke.
#FergusonFire Photo by Al Golub about an hour ago, 530 pm. pic.twitter.com/hCH593pDlw
— Dave Toussaint (@engineco16) July 15, 2018