Wildfire in British Columbia produces a pyrocumulonimbus cloud

By Scott Bachmeier • 28 June 2023

GOES-18 Day Land Cloud Fire RGB (top left), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, top right), “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom left) and Fire Power derived product (bottom right) [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

The thermal signature of the wildfire exhibited 3.9 µm brightness temperatures as hot as 126.3ºC and Fire Power values as high as 2510 MW (both occurring at 2050 UTC). The pyroCB cloud exhibited cloud-top 10.3 µm infrared brightness temperatures as cold as -56.13ºC.

In GOES-18 True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below), shades of tan to light brown helped to identify the smoke-laden anvil of the pyroCb as it drifted northward.

GOES-18 True Color RGB images [click to play MP4 animation]

Categories: Fire detection, GOES-18, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images