![](\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/G18_G16_VIS_SWIR_IR_NWT_PYROCBS_23MAYT2026_loop_GOES-18_GOES-16_2026143_193022_2026144_030022.gif\")
<\/a>Visible images (0.64 \u00b5m, top), Shortwave Infrared images (3.9 \u00b5m, middle) and Infrared Window images (10.3 \u00b5m, bottom), from GOES-18 (left) and GOES-16 (right), from 1930 UTC on 23 May to 0300 UTC on 24 May [click to play animated GIF]<\/p><\/div>10-minute Full Disk scan Visible, Shortwave Infrared and Infrared Window images from GOES-18 (GOES-West)<\/em> and GOES-16 (above)<\/em><\/strong> showed a wildfire in Canada’s Northwest Territories that produced multiple pulses of pyrocumulonimbus<\/strong><\/a> (pyroCb) clouds late in the day on 23 May 2026. Each of the pyroCb clouds exhibited slightly warmer signatures (darker shades of gray) in the Shortwave Infrared images, due to enhanced solar reflection off the smaller<\/em> smoke-filled ice crystals of their anvil tops — in addition to cold Infrared Window brightness temperatures in the -50s C (shades of red).<\/p>\n In a comparison of Day Land Cloud Fire RGB<\/strong><\/a> images from the 2 satellites — created using Geo2Grid<\/strong><\/a> (below)<\/em><\/strong>, the wildfire’s thermal signature (shades of pink to red) was often obscured from the far western view of GOES-18 by pyro-convection; however, during many of those instances the thermal signature could be seen in GOES-16 imagery (since that satellite was positioned farther to the east, at 104.7 W longitude, during its annual test period<\/strong><\/a>).<\/p>\n