MSGID: 1:317/3 645a8a2d
PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08
TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08
May 9, 2023 - Wildfires in Western Canada

   Wildfires
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   More than 100 wildland fires raged across Western Canada in early May
   2023, forcing an estimated 30,000 people in Alberta and British
   Columbia to evacuate. The fires destroyed homes and produced chimneys
   of smoke that reached into the upper troposphere.

   The extensive and dangerous fires moving across Canada’s richest oil
   region also forced shutdowns of several oil production facilities. As
   of May 8, energy producers were estimated to be holding back an
   estimated 280,000 barrels of oil equivalent each day, or roughly 3
   percent of the country’s output.

   The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board
   NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of smoke billowing
   from fires in the two Canadian provinces on May 7, 2023, the day after
   officials in Alberta declared a provincial state of emergency. A large
   cluster of red hot spots, each marking actively burning fire, can be
   seen in Alberta, despite heavy cloud cover. Massive thick smoke covers
   British Columbia and blows northwest over parts of Yukon and the
   Northwest Territories. The Great Slave Lake, located in Northwest
   Territories, remains covered in ice.

   As of the evening of May 8, there were 88 fires burning in Alberta,
   with 29 remaining out of control in Alberta, according to the Alberta
   Wildfire Status Dashboard. Fourteen of these fires were listed as
   “Fires of Note”, which is defined as a fire determined to be of
   significant public interest and which may pose a threat to public
   safety, communities, or critical infrastructure. On that same day, four
   fires were burning out of control in British Columbia, near its border
   with Alberta.

   The fires in Alberta have been so intense they have produced towering
   chimneys of smoke. Using remote sensing, researchers at the Cooperative
   Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of
   Wisconsin, Madison, observed the formation of a pyrocumulonimbus
   (pyroCb) cloud billowing from a wildfire west of Edmonton on May 4.
   Temperatures at the top of the cloud were estimated to have reached
   -61°C (-78°F), which indicates that the smoke may have reached an
   altitude of about 12 kilometers (39,000 feet). That would put the top
   of the pyroCb cloud into the tropopause—the boundary between the
   troposphere and the stratosphere.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Aqua
   Date Acquired: 5/7/2023
   Resolutions:  1km (824.1 KB),  500m (2.6 MB),
   Bands Used: 1,4,3
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-05-09
 
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