Eastern Canada
Fires

Introduction

On June 10, 1997, the NOAA Geostationary and Polar-orbiting Operatonal Satellites, GOES and POES, respectively, captured excellent images of several of the 174 forest fires raging across parts of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, Canada. Extremely warm, dry conditions were to blame where temperatures exceeded 90 degrees over a wide area for several days. According to CBC National Radio News, the worst situation was in Quebec where over 31,000 hectares (77,000 acres) were burned forcing thousands of residents to flee from their homes. Smoke from the Quebec fires darkened skies over New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and into northern Maine hampering many vacationers.

The mpeg files (top and in figure 1) were made from consecutive 15 minute GOES visible images taken on June 10 during the midday hours. The smoke plumes are being driven by increasing strong northwesterly winds for many hundreds of miles southeastward. The POES images (figures 2 through 5) were created using the near-infrared channel 2 and shortwave infrared channel 3(3.9 micrometer). The near-infrared channel highlights reflective surfaces including the smoke particulates of the plumes. The shortwave infrared channel detects hot spots made by the fires. These hot spots are highlighted in red.

Satellite Images

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Figure 1 GOES-8 1KM Visible MPEG 10 June 97 (252KB)

Figure 2 1KM AVHRR Channel 2 10 June 97 23:11Z (270KB)

Figure 3 1KM AVHRR Channel 3 10 June 97 23:11Z (270KB)

Figure 4 1KM AVHRR Channel 2 10 June 97 23:11Z (270KB)

Figure 5 1KM AVHRR Channel 3 10 June 97 23:11Z (270KB)

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