Prescribed burn in southern Wisconsin
GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, bottom) images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]
1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) showed the smoke plume and thermal anomaly or “hot spot” (cluster of darker black pixels) associated with what was likely a prescribed burn at or near the Brooklyn Wildlife Area in south-central Wisconsin on 19 October 2021.
A toggle between the GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared image at 2027 UTC and a background Google Maps image — as viewed using RealEarth (below) — further implicated Brooklyn Wildlife Area as the likely fire source region.
GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) image at 2027 UTC, along with a Google Maps background [click to enlarge]
GOES-16 True Color RGB images created using Geo2Grid (below) offered a clearer depiction of the smoke plume, as it eventually moved northeastward over the Madison metro area.
GOES-16 True Color images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]
As the smoke plume moved over the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, the aerosol layer was detected by a rooftop High Spectral Resolution Lidar — generally within the 2-4 km altitude range (below).
UW-SSEC rooftop lidar images [click to enlarge]
A few miles to the northeast, the ceilometer at Madison Dane County Regional Airport also detected the base of the smoke plume aloft (below).
Plot of surface report data from Madison Dane County Regional Airport [click to enlarge]
Southwesterly surface wind gusts at Monroe (located about 20 miles southwest of the fire source region) were as high as 24 knots (28 mph) just before 19 UTC (below).
Plot of surface data from Monroe [click to enlarge]
Thanks to Kathy Strabala (SSEC) for bringing this case to our attention!