Rare 'fire cloud' looks otherworldly in photo snapped from NASA's flying lab

A fire cloud over eastern Washington state as seen by scientists aboard NASA's flying laboratory jet. The flight was part of a joint NOAA and NASA field campaign called FIREX-AQ. NASA

東部Washington州に‘Fire Cloud’ (火災雲 : pyrocumulus とも呼ばれる[cumulus 積雲][pyro 火])通常、火災や、火山活動に伴い生ずる濃密な積雲)、稀に出現する雲が現れ、撮影されました。しかも、撮影した機器は、NASAのFlying Laboratory Jet。

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You’ve seen billowy cumulus clouds and wispy cirrus clouds, but odds are you’re not too familiar with fire clouds. Even scientists know less than what they'd like to about so-called pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds, which form when wildfires and agricultural fires unleash enough heat and moisture into the atmosphere to produce storms.

That changed on Aug. 8, when NASA’s airliner-turned-flying laboratory took to the skies over Washington state and flew a team of scientists straight into a pyrocumulonimbus cloud that had formed high over a wildfire in the eastern part of the state.

Image: Satellite view of a fire cloud

An August 7, 2019 satellite view of a fire cloud, or pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb), over Washington state. Such clouds are caused when fires loft enough heat and moisture into the atmosphere to produce thunderstorms.NASA