As discussed on the Satellite Liaison Blog, wildfires driven by strong Santa Ana winds developed after sunset on 02 December — and 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) displayed the thermal anomalies and smoke plumes associated with larger fires that persisted into the subsequent daytime hours on 03 December 2020.GOES-17... Read More

GOES-16 Mesoscale Sector 1 imagery, in its default position over the metropolitan New York City aviation hub, also views western New York. It was therefore able to view the beginning of a large fire at a cardboard container recycling and manufacturing facility in Niagara Falls (Youtube link) on 20 November 2020. GOES-16 Band 7 shortwave... Read More

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) and Fire Temperature Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (above) showed a period of extreme behavior of the East Troublesome Fire in Colorado around and just after sunset on 21 October 2020. This rapidly-growing wildfire produced a series of pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds — the coldest pyroCb cloud-top 10.35 µm infrared brightness temperatures... Read More

The East Troublesome Fire in Colorado expanded greatly on 21 October (click here for more information), and produced pyrocumulus clouds.  NOAA-20 overflew the fire at around 1930 UTC (linked-to overpass map from this site) on 21 October, and NUCAPS profiles, shown above, diagnosed the stability of the mid- and upper-troposphere.  The toggle below between the NOAA-20 VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared (11.45 µm) imagery and NUCAPS Sounding availability... Read More