Pyrocumulonimbus cloud in eastern Russia

By Scott Bachmeier • 30 April 2019

Himawari-8 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, middle) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.4 µm, bottom) [click to play animation | MP4]

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 pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) cloud 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, between still-ice-covered Lake Bolon and the Amur River. The cloud-top infrared brightness temperature first reached the -40ºC “pyroCb threshold” at 0310 UTC; note that the pyroCb cloud top appears warmer (darker shades of gray) than those of surrounding thunderstorms in the Shortwave Infrared images — a characteristic of enhanced solar reflection off the smaller ice crystals that are found in pyroCb cirrus anvils.

A faster animation revealed the rapid northeastward run of the large pyroCb-producing fire on Shortwave Infrared imagery.

VIIRS True Color RGB and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP [click to enlarge]

In a sequence of three VIIRS True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP as viewed using RealEarth (above), the coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature of the pyroCb was -59ºC — which closely corresponded to the tropopause temperature on 00 UTC rawinsonde data from Habarovsk (below), located just southwest of the fire region.

Plot of 00 UTC rawinsonde data from Habarovsk [click to enlarge]

Here’s the aerosol index from N20 OMPS pic.twitter.com/x3T12mi5ml

— Colin Seftor (@colin_seftor) April 30, 2019

Categories: Fire detection, Himawari-8, NOAA-20, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, VIIRS

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Pyrocumulonimbus cloud in eastern Russia