![\"GOES-17](\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2020\/09\/200902_goes17_shortwaveInfrared_MT_fires_anim.gif\")
<\/a>GOES-17 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m)<\/em> images, with plots of METAR surface reports and surface fronts [click to play animation | MP4<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/div>1-minute\u00a0Mesoscale Domain Sector<\/strong><\/a> GOES-17 (GOES-West)<\/em> Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m<\/strong><\/a>) images (above)<\/strong> <\/em>showed a number of thermal anomalies — clusters of hot pixels, yellow to red enhancement — associated with wildfires that developed across parts of Montana on 02 September 2020<\/strong><\/a>. The SPC Fire Weather Outlook<\/strong><\/a> had highlighted critical to extreme fire weather conditions over much of that region, which included strong winds both ahead of and behind a cold front that was moving southward across Montana. As winds shifted to northerly in the wake of the cold frontal passage, visibility was reduced to 6 miles at Billings (KBIL) as smoke from a fire (located approximately 40 miles to the north) began to drift over that location.<\/p>\n A 4-panel comparison of GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 \u00b5m<\/strong><\/a>), GOES-17 Shortwave Infrared, GOES-16 (GOES-East)<\/em> Fire Power<\/strong><\/a> and GOES-17 Fire Temperature<\/strong><\/a> Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (below)<\/strong><\/em> provided a closer view of the Huff Fire — which, fanned by northwest winds gusting as high as 59 mph, made a rapid run toward the southeast and prompted an evacuation of residents in Jordan.<\/p>\n GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 \u00b5m, top left),<\/em> GOES-17 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m, top right),<\/em> GOES-16 Fire Power (bottom left)<\/em> and GOES-17 Fire Temperature RGB (bottom right)<\/em> [click to play animation | MP4<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/div>A time-matched comparison of Shortwave Infrared images from Suomi NPP (overpass map<\/strong><\/a>) and GOES-17 at 2042 UTC is shown below. The higher spatial resolution of the VIIRS<\/strong><\/a> instrument on Suomi NPP (375 meters) more accurately detected the shape and areal extent of the fire at that time, compared to the 2 km spatial resolution (at the satellite subpoint) of the ABI<\/strong><\/a> instrument on GOES-17. Northwest winds were gusting to\u00a0 knots (51 mph) at the Jordan airport.<\/p>\n<\/a>