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Train derailment in Minnesota

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), Night Fog BTD (10.3 µm – 3.9 µm) and Nighttime Microphysics RGB images; railroads are plotted in dashed blue lines [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), Night Fog BTD (10.3 µm – 3.9 µm) and Nighttime Microphysics RGB images (above) displayed the thermal signature — via a single warm pixel — of a fire that resulted from a BNSF train derailment (media report) in Raymond, Minnesota at 0602 UTC (1:02 AM CDT) on 30 March 2023.  Although the fire itself was relatively small (only 3 train cars were burning) and patchy clouds were drifting overhead, the subpixel sensitivity of thermal anomalies is very good with the 3.9 µm spectral band (and any products which include 3.9 µm data).

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