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[NASA] Chasing Fire Clouds in Utah

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  3. Chasing Fire Clouds in Utah
 


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Natural Color
Brightness Temperature

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NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

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NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison
Natural ColorBrightness Temperature

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NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison
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NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

Natural Color

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Image Details

A smoke-infused pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) rises from the Widemouth 2 fire in Utah in these images captured by the
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(Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s
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satellite. The left image is natural color; the right image is false color, revealing cloud-top brightness temperatures below -40°C, a commonly used threshold for identifying pyroCbs. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison.

Scientists have long known that volcanoes can launch large quantities of particles into the

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. In the past few decades, it has become clear that wildfires do this, too, by generating towering, smoke-infused
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(pyroCb) clouds.

The largest pyroCbs are stunning weather-making features that generate massive

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capable of unleashing lightning, hail, and heavy rain. A growing body of research shows that pyroCbs can also leave an outsized imprint on the upper atmosphere by channeling pulses of particles and gases into the stratosphere’s mostly dry, cloudless confines. Once there, smoke can spread widely and linger for months or years, sometimes circling the globe and likely influencing the ozone layer and Earth’s
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.

Understanding these enigmatic and dangerous clouds is why a team of atmospheric scientists—part of a NASA mission called

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(INjected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment)—is spending the summer chasing them with NASA’s
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aircraft, NSF/NCAR’s
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, and a suite of
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. The team completed one of its first sampling runs of the summer on August 3, 2026, when the GV flew through a high-altitude pulse of smoke from the
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, one of Utah’s largest so far
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.

Lightning ignited the fire on July 27, 2026, but it remained relatively small until August 2, when it more than doubled in size amid intense winds and hot, dry conditions. That afternoon, soon after it had produced two pyroCb bursts, the

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(Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s
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satellite captured this image (above), showing a chimney of high-altitude cloud and smoke casting a shadow on low-altitude smoke below.

These bursts propelled clouds high enough that Aqua measured cloud-top brightness temperatures well below −40°C, a common threshold for identifying pyroCbs and a sign that the cloud tops were bubbling to the top of the

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and sometimes into the stratosphere. The brightness temperature measurements “reveal two discrete pulses of pyroCb action,” said Michael Fromm, a scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. “The westernmost is the youngest pulse and stands out in the visible imagery by virtue of its shadow.”

Though relatively routine and minor, this pyroCb event followed a pre-dawn pyroCb from the same fire,

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by the NOAA weather satellite GOES-West. “Morning pyroCbs are much more unusual,” Fromm said, because they don’t benefit from daytime heating that helps fuel convection. In this case, however, there appeared to be enough atmospheric instability and
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in the air to allow for pyroCb development. 

Multiple pyroCbs in a single day could have added unwanted complexity for forecasters and fire officials battling the blaze and organizing evacuations, said David Peterson, INSPYRE’s principal investigator. “Minimizing that sort of uncertainty for fire forecasters is a big part of the reason we’re out here studying this,” he added.

Remote sensing experts like Peterson and Fromm routinely study pyroCbs from afar with satellites, but it’s less common for pilots to chase and sample smoke plumes just hours after they form. In this case, the GV aircraft, on the ground in Colorado when the Widemouth 2 fire blew up, made a beeline for a high-altitude smoke plume as it drifted over New Mexico on August 3. The instruments on the plane sampled smoke at roughly 12 kilometers (8 miles) above the surface, collecting data at a height that isn’t typically incorporated into forecast models.

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A photo of the Widemouth 2 fire taken from an INSPYRE aircraft during a sampling flight on August 3, 2026, shows a smoke-infused cloud rising high above the fire.
Bernadett Weinzierl/University of Vienna

During that mission, a scientist on board captured this image (above) of a

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(pyroCu) billowing up over the Widemouth 2 fire. While not as tall or energetic as pyroCbs, pyroCus are precursor clouds that share many of the same characteristics. Here, heat from the fire is fueling strong convective updrafts, forming a towering cloud with puffy
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that poke into the upper troposphere as lower-altitude smoke drifts below.

Satellites excel at identifying pyroCbs by measuring the temperature of the cloud tops that form above smoke plumes. Using this technique, researchers have established that wildfires produce about 70 pyroCbs per year, many in dense forests of Canada and Russia, though plenty also occur in grasslands and savannas in the United States and Australia. So far in 2026, Fromm and colleagues have identified at least 13 in the continental United States.

Since one of the first pyroCbs appeared in the scientific literature in the early 2000s, scientists have cataloged well over

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events, and they now believe that wildfires may contribute up to
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of the ****** carbon and organic
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in the lower stratosphere. The sheer frequency of pyroCbs means that the total mass of particles they inject over the course of a wildfire season may rival that of large volcanic eruptions.

Still, many questions about the enigmatic clouds remain unanswered. It isn’t clear what vegetation is most likely to fuel pyroCbs, why some form more lightning than others, why they form in only a small fraction of fires, and how to accurately forecast them.

“Whether it be their dangerous manifestations on the ground or their long-lasting imprint on the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere,” Fromm said, “pyroCbs continue to surprise us.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA 

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 and 
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. 
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by Bernadett Weinzierl/University of Vienna. Story by Adam Voiland.

Downloads

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August 2, 2026: Natural Color

JPEG (1.63 MB)

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August 2, 2026: Brightness Temperature

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August 3, 2026

JPEG (319.28 KB)

References & Resources

  • CIRA CSU, via
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     (2026, August 3)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • Denver 7, via
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    (2026, July 28)
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    ? Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • The Economist (2026, August 9)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • Fromm, M., et al. (2022)
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    . Communications Earth & Environment, 3, 243.
  • InciWeb (2026)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • Katich, J.M. (2023)
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    . Science, 379(6634), 815-820.
  • NASA (2026)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2026, July 20)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • NASA Airborne Science Program (2026)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • NASA Earth Observatory (2021, July 30)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • NASA Earth Observatory (2020, January 10)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • Peterson, D., et al. (2025)
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    . Climate and Atmospheric Science, 8(325).
  • The University of Utah (2026, August 6)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (2026, June 2)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (2025, June 25)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • The Weather Channel (2026, August 10)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • Western Fire Chiefs (2026)
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.
  • World Meteorological Organization,
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    . Accessed August 13, 2026.

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