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

Crater Creek Fire in British Columbia produces a pyrocumulonimbus cloud

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-18 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) + Fire Power derived product (top left), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, top right), “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom left) and Cloud Top Temperature derived product (bottom right) [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) + Fire Power derived product (a component of the GOES Fire Detection and Characterization Algorithm FDCA), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) and Cloud Top Temperature derived product images (above) showed that the Crater Creek Fire — located in far southern British Columbia, less than 10 miles from the Washington border — produced a pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) cloud late in the day on 16 August 2023.

Cursor sampling of GOES-18 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) + Fire Power derived product (top left), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, top right), “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom left) and Cloud Top Temperature derived product (bottom right) at 0142 UTC [click to enlarge]

Beginning at 0023 UTC (prior to pyroCB development), the fire occasionally exhibited 3.9 µm brightness temperatures of 137.88ºC (the saturation temperature of the GOES-18 ABI Band 7 detectors) — and Fire Power values reached 3929.32 MW at 0142 UTC (above). Cloud-top 10.3 µm brightness temperatures first reached the -40ºC pyroCb threshold (shades of blue) at 0035 UTC — and later cooled to a minimum of -42.31ºC (with a corresponding Cloud Top Temperature of -57.17ºC) at 0157 UTC (below).

Cursor sampling of GOES-18 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) + Fire Power derived product (top left), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, top right), “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom left) and Cloud Top Temperature derived product (bottom right) at 0157 UTC [click to enlarge]

1-minute GOES-18 True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below) showed the abrupt pyroCb pulse as it quickly rose above the wildfire smoke plume, and the pyroCb anvil as it then drifted north-northeastward.

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

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