This website works best with a newer web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer is not supported by this website.

CIMSS Satellite Blog

MENU

Pyrocumulonimbus cloud produced by the Pulp Road Fire in North Carolina

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) + Fire Power (top left), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, top right), Day Land Cloud Fire RGB (bottom left) and Fire Temperature RGB (bottom right) [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) + Fire Power (a component of the GOES Fire Detection and Characterization Algorithm FDCA), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), Day Land Cloud Fire RGB and Fire Temperature RGB images (above) showed thermal signatures and pyrocumulus pulses associated with the Pulp Road Fire in far southeastern North Carolina on 16 June 2023. Beginning at 1646 UTC, the fire occasionally exhibited 3.9 µm brightness temperatures of 137.71ºC (the saturation temperature of the GOES-16 ABI Band 7 detectors) — and Fire Power values exceeded 2300 MW at times. The fire rapidly grew in size from 2,500 acres at 1300 UTC on 16 June to 11,500 acres at 0000 UTC on 17 June.

A toggle between VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm), True Color RGB and False Color RGB images from Suomi-NPP (valid at 1747 UTC) and NOAA-20 (valid at 1819 UTC) (below) revealed that the fire produced a pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) cloud, which exhibited anvil-top 11.45 µm brightness temperature values of -40ºC and colder (shades of blue). Data used to create the VIIRS imagery were downloaded and processed by the SSEC/CIMSS Direct Broadcast ground station.

Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20 VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm, top left), Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm, top right), True Color RGB (bottom left) and False Color RGB (bottom right) [click to enlarge]

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first documented case of a pyroCb in the State of North Carolina.

Categories: Fire detection, GOES-16, NOAA-20, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, VIIRS