{"id":28992,"date":"2018-07-15T23:59:10","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T23:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=28992"},"modified":"2018-07-17T12:59:42","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T12:59:42","slug":"ferguson-fire-in-california-forms-a-pyrocumulonimbus-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/28992","title":{"rendered":"Ferguson Fire in California forms a pyrocumulonimbus cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"GOES-16<\/a>

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 \u00b5m, left),<\/em> Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m, center)<\/em> and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 \u00b5m, right)<\/em> images [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>\n

* GOES-17 images shown here are preliminary and non-operational *<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ferguson Fire<\/strong><\/a> in central California produced a pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) cloud during the afternoon hours on 15 July 2018<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0GOES-16 (GOES-East)<\/em> “Red” Visible (0.64 \u00b5m<\/strong><\/a>), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m<\/strong><\/a>) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 \u00b5m<\/strong><\/a>) images (above)<\/strong><\/em> showed that the high-altitude portion of the pyroCb cloud then drifted northeastward toward the California\/Nevada border, where cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures cooled to near -55\u00baC (orange enhancement)<\/em> as it crossed the border around 0005 UTC<\/strong><\/a> on 16 July.<\/p>\n

A comparison of Visible images from GOES-15 (0.63 \u00b5m), GOES-17 (0.64 \u00b5m) and GOES-16 (0.64 \u00b5m) is shown below — with the imagery displayed in the native projection of each satellite. Images from GOES-16\/17 are at 5-minute intervals, while images from GOES-15 are every 5-15 minutes depending on the operational scan schedule of that GOES-West satellite. GOES-17 was at its post-launch checkout position of 89.5\u00baW longitude, so it offered a more direct view of the pyroCb cloud.<\/p>\n

\"Visible<\/a>

Visible images from GOES-15<\/strong> (0.63 \u00b5m, left),<\/em> GOES-17<\/strong> (0.64 \u00b5m, center)<\/em> and GOES-16<\/strong> (0.64 \u00b5m, right)<\/em> [click to play animation]<\/p><\/div>A toggle between NOAA-19 Visible (0.63 \u00b5m), Shortwave Infrared (3.7 \u00b5m) and Infrared Window (10.8 \u00b5m) images (below)<\/strong><\/em> showed the pyroCb cloud southwest of the California\/Nevada border (between Bridgeport KBAN and Mammoth KMMH) at 2327 UTC. In spite of a minimum cloud-top 10.8 \u00b5m infrared brightness temperature of -59\u00baC (red enhancement),<\/em> note the darker (warmer)<\/em> appearance of the cloud on the 3.7 \u00b5m image — this is due to reflection of solar radiation off the smaller ice particles of the pyroCb anvil. The -59\u00baC temperature roughly corresponded to an altitude of 13 km or 42.6 kft on the 00 UTC Reno, Nevada rawinsonde report (plot<\/strong><\/a> | data<\/strong><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"NOAA-19<\/a>

NOAA-19 Visible (0.63 \u00b5m),<\/em> Shortwave Infrared (3.7 \u00b5m)<\/em> and Infrared Window (10.8 \u00b5m)<\/em> images [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>A time lapse of the pyroCb was created by Sierra Fire Watch (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Time<\/a>

Time lapse [click to play YouTube video]<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* GOES-17 images shown here are preliminary and non-operational * The Ferguson Fire in central California produced a pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) cloud during the afternoon hours on 15 July 2018.\u00a0GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 \u00b5m), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 \u00b5m) images (above) showed that the high-altitude portion of the pyroCb cloud […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":28994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,6,43,74,80,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avhrr","category-fire-detection","category-goes-15","category-goes-16","category-goes-17","category-poes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28992"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29000,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28992\/revisions\/29000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}