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NASA captured a strange and rare picture of a "fire cloud" caused by a forest fire in eastern Washington State.
The phenomenon was filmed on August 8 by atmospheric scientists aboard a modified Douglas DC-8 airliner, which NASA uses as a flying laboratory.
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The fire cloud was photographed August 8 over eastern Washington State.
(David Peterson [U.S. Naval Research Laboratory]/ NASA)
According to NASA, fire clouds, or pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb), are caused when fires send enough heat and moisture into the atmosphere to cause thunderstorms.
The Space Agency is collaborating with the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on a project entitled Influence of Fire on Regional and Global Environments and on Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) to observe the impact of forest fires and fires on air quality and climate. United States
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Atmospheric scientists aboard a modified Douglas DC-8 airliner observed the cloud of fire.
(David Peterson [U.S. Naval Research Laboratory]/ NASA)
The photo was captured at about 30,000 feet (5.6 miles) and shows the sun setting through thick smoke, according to NASA. "The particles in the smoke reflect the light so as to make the sun orange," he said in a statement. "The photo below shows the plume of smoke (gray) that fed the pyrocumulonimbus cloud (white)."
"The view was absolutely beautiful," said David Peterson, FIREX-AQ's senior forecaster, who was in the cockpit of the DC-8 when taking the picture, in a statement. "Very few photographs of big pyroCb are available, especially from the air."
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"The PyroCb are like big chimneys, carrying a lot of smoke in the lower stratosphere," he added.
Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
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