NASA aircraft flies high over B.C. wildfires to study pyrocumulonimbus clouds
A NASA research aircraft flew over British Columbia's wildfires over the weekend to study pyrocumulonimbus clouds. The ER-2 plane, a repurposed Cold War spy plane, took off from Great Falls, Montana, and flew back and forth over B.C.'s southern Interior more than a dozen times. The flight lasted over six hours and reached an altitude of 60,000 feet, where it spent about four hours over the Clinton area.
The Pear Lake wildfire, the largest in B.C., created pyrocumulonimbus clouds, which can generate rain, lightning, and fire tornadoes. NASA's ER-2 is equipped with infrared wildfire trackers to measure and map these dangerous storms.
Written by urgent.news from Winnipeg Free Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
