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Grassland fire in South Dakota

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top left), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, top right), Fire Power (bottom left) and Fire Temperature RGB (bottom right) images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

5-minute GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), Fire Power derived product and Fire Temperature RGB images (above) displayed signatures of the wind-driven “Turkey Day” grassland fire in Oglala Lakota County in southwestern South Dakota on 23 November 2022. Peak 3.9 µm infrared brightness temperature (102.53ºC) and Fire Power (1570.84 MW) values were seen at 2006 UTC (the Fire Power derived product is a component of the GOES Fire Detection and Characterization Algorithm FDCA). Clouds began to move over the fire late in the day, thereby masking its thermal signature.

A toggle between Suomi-NPP VIIRS True Color RGB and False Color RGB images valid at 2016 UTC (below) provided a higher-resolution view of the narrow, dark burn scar as well as the smoke plume; in the False Color image, the hottest signature at the leading (southern) edge of the fire showed up as brighter shades of pink. Note how the fire’s burn scar initially moved eastward about 1 mile, but then  jogged toward the southeast as surface winds with gusts in the 20-26 knot range (Pine Ridge SD observations) abruptly shifted from westerly to northwesterly (in the wake of a cold frontal passage). The data to produce these VIIRS images were downloaded and processed using the SSEC/CIMSS Direct Broadcast ground station.

Suomi-NPP VIIRS True Color RGB and False Color RGB images, valid at 2016 UTC [click to enlarge]

Categories: Fire detection, GOES-16, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, VIIRS