Wildfires in Idaho
GOES-18 Fire Temperature RGB images, with GOES-17 Fire Detection and Characterization Algorithm products [click to play animated GIF | MP4]
Overlapping 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sectors provided 30-second GOES-18 (GOES-West) Fire Temperature RGB images, along with GOES-17 Fire Detection and Characterization Algorithm (FDCA) products (above) — which showed thermal signatures of the larger Ross Fork Fire and the smaller Wildhorse Fire in southern Idaho on 04 September 2022. The Wildhorse Fire caused a closure of US Highway 20, just west of Hill City, for a period of 12 hours.
The Ross Fork Fire burned very hot, with Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) infrared brightness temperatures reaching 137.88ºC (the saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI Band 7 detectors). For those hottest fire pixels, occasionally FDCA parameters (Fire Temperature, Fire Power, Fire Area and Fire Mask) were generated and displayable via AWIPS cursor sampling (below).
GOES-18 Fire Temperature RGB image, with GOES-17 FDCA cursor values for a Processed Fire [click to enlarge]
Note, however, that FDCA parameters were not displayable in AWIPS for Cloudy Fires (fires with partial obscuration by pyrocumulus clouds and/or optically-thick smoke) or for Saturated Fires (below). Part of this issue is related to the fact that the peak GOES-18 3.9 µm temperature (137.88ºC) was slightly lower than the peak 3.9 µm value for GOES-16/-17 (138.71ºC).
GOES-18 Fire Temperature RGB image, with GOES-17 FDCA cursor values for a Saturated Fire [click to enlarge]
GOES-18 Fire Temperature RGB image, with GOES-17 FDCA cursor values for a Cloudy Fire [click to enlarge]