Firestorm clouds are wildfire-generated convective storms known scientifically as pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds. They can build rapidly above intense fires, propel smoke into the upper troposphere and stratosphere, and alter air quality far downwind. Aircraft campaigns such as NASA’s INSPYRE and the 2019 FIREX-AQ mission provide measurements that satellites and ground sensors cannot obtain alone.
What firestorm clouds are
A pyroCb forms when a very intense wildfire drives powerful upward motion. Heat, moisture and fire-generated turbulence can organize into thunderstorm-scale convection above the flames. The resulting cloud can carry smoke and combustion products far higher than an ordinary smoke plume.
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Some pyroCbs inject material into the stratosphere, where smoke can persist and spread across regional or even hemispheric distances. Their rapid development and changing trajectories make them difficult to study with a single instrument or from one location.
Why scientists fly through and above pyroCbs
Satellite images reveal cloud shape and movement, but they do not directly provide the same fine-scale information as an aircraft sampling the cloud, its edges and the plume beneath it. Aircraft can measure:
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- Particle sizes and concentrations
- Cloud-water properties
- Gases and combustion chemistry
- Temperature, winds and other meteorological conditions
- How smoke is distributed vertically from the fire to the upper troposphere and stratosphere
These measurements connect fire behavior with cloud microphysics, plume chemistry and downwind air quality. A coordinated aircraft, satellite and ground network is especially important because a pyroCb can evolve while an aircraft is approaching it.
How an airborne observation is assembled
- Locate an active fire and developing convection. Satellite observations and fire reports identify a target that may be producing a pyroCb.
- Sample different parts of the system. One aircraft may make close-range measurements near the cloud, while another operates at high altitude to observe the upper plume or stratospheric injection.
- Link the flight data to the fire and plume. Ground teams and additional aircraft provide context about fire intensity, earlier plume conditions and near-surface chemistry.
- Track the smoke after the encounter. Repeated observations show whether material remains local, spreads regionally or enters the stratosphere.
This multi-platform design turns a brief encounter into a three-dimensional record of the fire, cloud and atmosphere.
NASA INSPYRE: a campaign built for pyroCbs
NASA describes INSPYRE as the first aircraft campaign designed specifically to study pyrocumulonimbus clouds. It combines NASA’s ER-2 high-altitude aircraft with the NSF NCAR Gulfstream V.
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The Border 2 deployment
The first INSPYRE deployment focused on the Border 2 wildfire in Washington State and British Columbia. The Gulfstream V collected close-range measurements, while the ER-2 observed the storm and its smoke from high altitude. Using both perspectives helps scientists compare conditions near the cloud with what is transported above it.
An unexpected Alaska flight
During the deployment, the Gulfstream V made an unexpected flight to study a Siberian pyroCb smoke plume. The aircraft followed that plume for three days as it moved across the United States, documenting how a fire-generated cloud’s emissions can become a long-lived atmospheric feature far from the original fire.
A pileus cloud over Montana
NASA’s 2026 Earth Observatory report describes researchers capturing a pileus cloud over a Montana fire cloud during INSPYRE. The ER-2’s MASTER instrument records 50 spectral bands, enabling detailed characterization of smoke and cloud properties. The observation adds cloud geometry and spectral information to the in situ measurements collected by the aircraft.
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What FIREX-AQ and earlier flights revealed
The 2019 FIREX-AQ penetration
During the 2019 FIREX-AQ campaign, NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory passed directly through a large pyroCb rising from a fire in eastern Washington. A second aircraft sampled the smoke plume earlier, and mobile laboratories measured conditions on the ground. Together, those observations connected the fire’s behavior, the developing cloud, chemical changes in the plume and the air that communities could encounter downwind.
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A Boise study analyzed particles collected during six aircraft penetrations of intense wildfire-induced pyroconvection on 29–30 August 2016. The measurements covered particles from 10 micrometres to 6 millimetres in diameter. That size range matters because particle size affects how smoke is transported, how it interacts with clouds and how long it can remain airborne.
How the campaigns differ
| Campaign or study | Aircraft and vantage point | Fire or plume context | What the measurements addressed |
|---|---|---|---|
| INSPYRE | NASA ER-2 at high altitude; NSF NCAR Gulfstream V at close range | Border 2 wildfire in Washington and British Columbia; an additional Siberian plume tracked across the United States; a Montana fire-cloud observation | PyroCb structure, smoke and cloud properties, plume evolution and transport at multiple altitudes |
| FIREX-AQ, 2019 | NASA DC-8 through a large pyroCb; another aircraft sampled the plume earlier; mobile laboratories operated on the ground | Wildfire in eastern Washington | Fire behavior, cloud processes, plume chemistry and downwind air quality |
| Boise study, 29–30 August 2016 | Six aircraft penetrations of wildfire-induced pyroconvection | Intense wildfire convection analyzed through airborne particle samples | Particle sizes from 10 micrometres to 6 millimetres |
How much smoke reaches the stratosphere?
A NOAA repository record for a 2023 Science study by Katich and colleagues, based on 13 years of airborne observations, reports that black carbon and organic aerosols from present-day sources account for 10–25% of the aerosol composition in the lower stratosphere.
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That percentage describes the share of lower-stratospheric aerosol composition. It does not mean that pyroCbs produce 10–25% of all atmospheric smoke, all wildfire emissions or all aerosols. The distinction is essential: the measurement concerns what is present in a specific high-altitude atmospheric layer, not the total amount emitted by fires worldwide.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why successful interceptions are rare
PyroCbs are transient. Their clouds can form rapidly, change intensity and move away from the fire while aircraft are coordinating routes and instruments. Their smoke pathways also vary with winds and atmospheric structure. As a result, a successful flight can provide an unusually valuable three-dimensional snapshot that cannot simply be repeated on demand.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsDirect sampling also answers questions that imagery alone cannot. It reveals particle and chemical properties inside the plume, while simultaneous high-altitude and ground observations show how those properties change with height and distance.
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What remains unresolved
More observations have improved knowledge of pyroCb structure, aerosol composition and transport, but they have not settled what initiates every event or determines its intensity. NASA researcher Olga Kalashnikova said: “We still do not understand if they’re driven by fire energetics, or fire intensity, or by atmospheric conditions above.”
David Peterson, a research meteorologist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, described the first INSPYRE deployment as “an unprecedented opportunity to observe fire-generated storms from multiple perspectives and at multiple stages of their development,” as reported by NSF NCAR/UCAR. That combination of perspectives is the practical path toward better explanations of formation and more reliable predictions, but one flight cannot solve the prediction problem.
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