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Easy Fire in Southern California

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

As northeast Santa Ana winds began to increase before sunrise on 30 October 2019, 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed the sudden onset of a thermal anomaly (cluster of  hot 3.9 µm pixels) — associated with the Easy Fire northwest of Los Angeles — which occurred at 1308-1309 UTC (6:08-6:09 AM local time). After sunrise, the narrow wind-driven smoke plume was seen in the Visible imagery.

A comparison of 3 consecutive VIIRS Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) images from Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 with the corresponding GOES-17 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (below) demonstrated the advantage of polar orbiter imagery for providing a more accurate depiction of the size and location of a fire. Note: the color enhancements are different for the Suomi NPP/NOAA-20 vs GOES-17 images, since there are differences between shortwave infrared detectors on the VIIRS and ABI instruments.

3.74 µm Shortwave Infrared images from Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 compared with the corresponding GOES-17 3.9 µm images [click to enlarge]

3.74 µm Shortwave Infrared images from Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 compared with the corresponding GOES-17 3.9 µm images [click to enlarge]

Categories: Fire detection, GOES-17, NOAA-20, Suomi NPP, VIIRS