![GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, center) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm, bottom) images, with hourly plots of surface reports [click to play animation | MP4]](https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/images/2020/09/G16_VIS_SWIR_IR_WY_PYROCB_19SEP2020_B2713_2020263_204116_0003PANELS_FRAME00045.GIF)
GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, center) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm, bottom) images, with hourly plots of surface reports [click to play animation | MP4]
GOES-16
(GOES-East) “Red” Visible (
0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (
3.9 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (
10.35 µm) images
(above) showed a series of pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) pulses emanating from the
Mullen Fire in southeastern Wyoming on
19 September 2020. Each of the pulses exhibited 10.35 µm brightness temperatures of -40ºC and colder
(shades of blue) — assuring the heterogeneous nucleation of all supercooled water droplets to form ice crystals, thereby meeting the criteria of a pyroCb.
The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were around -47ºC, which corresponded to altitudes near 11 km according to rawinsonde data from Riverton, Wyoming (below).
![Plot of 00 UTC rawinsonde data from Riverton, Wyoming [click to enlarge]](https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/images/2020/09/200920_00UTC_KRIW_RAOB.GIF)
Plot of 00 UTC rawinsonde data from Riverton, Wyoming [click to enlarge]
![GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, center) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm, bottom) images, with hourly plots of surface reports [click to play animation | MP4]](https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/images/2020/09/200919_goes16_visible_shortwaveInfrared_longwaveInfrared_WY_pyroCb_anim.gif)
