CIMSS Satellite Blog

GOES-17 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

On 01 May, GOES-17 (GOES-West) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed the thermal anomaly (or fire “hot spot”) and dispersion of smoke from the first moderate-size wildfire of 2019 in the Interior of Alaska — the Oregon Lakes Impact Area Fire about 7 miles southwest of Fort Greely. This fire grew from 30 acres to 2500 acres in a 24-hour period, aided by warm daytime temperatures with low relative humidity values and southwest winds late in the day on 30 April (plot of surface data). The Oregon Lakes Impact Area Fire was burning in a remote area west of the Delta River which was previously burned by the 2013 Mississippi Fire; that area also contained unexploded ordnance dropped by military aircraft during training exercises.

A toggle between Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) images at 1216 UTC or 4:16 am local time (below) revealed the nighttime glow of the fire, along with a more accurate depiction of the thermal anomaly.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Although the color enhancements were different, a comparison of Shortwave Infrared images from Suomi NPP (3.74 µm) at 1216 UTC and GOES-17 (3.9 µm) at 1220 UTC (below) demonstrated the advantage of imagery from polar-orbiting satellites at high latitudes. In this example, the 375-meter resolution VIIRS image showed 2 distinct fire hot spots that were not apparent in the lower spatial resolution — 2 km at nadir, decreasing to about 4 km over Alaska — geostationary image.

Shortwave Infrared images from Suomi NPP (3.74 µm) and GOES-17 (3.9 µm) [click to enlarge]

from CIMSS Satellite Blog http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/33109