Gathering rare airborne observations of firestorm clouds
Just minutes into a planned research flight from Colorado to Oregon in August to study massive storm clouds fueled by intense wildfires, scientists discovered that a fire in Utah offered a more promising target. The mission support staff on the ground scrambled to draw up a new flight plan, and the pilots of the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR)…
The INSPYRE field campaign, a collaborative effort between NASA, the Naval Research Laboratory, the University of Nevada, Reno, and NSF NCAR, recently achieved significant milestones in the study of firestorm clouds. Just moments into a flight from Colorado to Oregon in August, scientists discovered that a fire in Utah provided a more promising target, prompting a rapid re-routing of the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) Gulfstream V aircraft.
This agile maneuvering enabled scientists to gather unprecedented observations of powerful pyrocumulonimbus clouds, notorious for producing hazardous weather conditions such as dry lightning strikes, strong downbursts of wind, and fire tornadoes. The data collected during this first deployment of INSPYRE, which spans five years, is expected to provide new insights into these poorly understood severe weather phenomena, ultimately improving weather forecasting, firefighting efforts, and aircraft safety near major fires.
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