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NASA’s six-week INSPYRE campaign used aircraft and ground teams to study pyrocumulonimbus clouds—thunderstorm-like systems generated by intense fires. A flight over Idaho’s Wildhorse grass fire on Aug. 26 gave researchers an unexpected opportunity to sample one of these clouds. The observations are now being combined and analyzed; NASA’s Oct. 2, 2026 report describes the campaign, not final findings or a new forecasting system.
What is a pyrocumulonimbus cloud?
A pyrocumulonimbus, often shortened to pyroCb, is a thunderstorm-like cloud produced when an intense fire drives heated air, smoke and other material upward. As the cloud develops, it can generate lightning, rain, downdrafts and wind shifts. Those effects make it a form of fire-generated weather: conditions created by the fire itself can influence how the fire behaves.
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PyroCbs became more widely recognized around the turn of the 21st century, when satellite observations showed wildfire smoke reaching altitudes previously associated with major volcanic eruptions. Scientists still do not know whether a pyroCb’s development depends chiefly on the fire’s energy, its intensity or atmospheric conditions above it. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory researcher Olga Kalashnikova, the campaign’s principal investigator, described that as an open question in NASA’s Oct. 2, 2026 report.
How high can wildfire smoke rise, and why does it matter?
NASA says the largest pyroCbs can carry smoke 30,000 to 50,000 feet (10 to 15 kilometers) above Earth, potentially into the stratosphere. That is the range for the largest events, not a typical height for every pyroCb.
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Smoke injected high into the atmosphere can travel far beyond the fire: NASA says stratospheric smoke can spread across continents, circle the globe and persist much longer than smoke lower in the atmosphere. That creates two different timescales of concern:
- Near the fire: Lightning, downdrafts and shifting winds can make fire behavior more hazardous for crews and nearby communities.
- Farther away and later: Smoke particles and gases may affect radiation, weather and climate. These are questions for study, not quantified effects established by the INSPYRE campaign report.
NASA also notes that most numerical prediction models do not explicitly represent pyroCbs and their smoke injections. Understanding how these clouds form and what they inject into the atmosphere could help researchers assess that modeling gap.
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How did NASA and its partners study the clouds?
INSPYRE stands for INjected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment. During summer 2026, the campaign combined aircraft measurements with observations from sensor-equipped ground teams across western North America. Each platform sampled a different part of the fire-and-cloud system:
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|---|---|---|
| NCAR Gulfstream | Based at the NCAR research aviation facility near Boulder, Colorado | Flew for six weeks, sampling smoke, gases, ice crystals and radiation. |
| NASA ER-2 | Based in Great Falls, Montana; flights reached as far north as Alaska | Carried 14 instruments to measure fire and cloud properties from above. |
| Ground teams | Near fires in the campaign area | Used sensor-equipped trucks to make ground observations, including measurements of fire intensity and atmospheric conditions. |
Together, the aircraft and ground teams collected observations of smoke particles and gases, ice crystals, radiation, fire intensity, updraft speeds and cloud properties. Researchers plan to combine these measurements with satellite and ground observations and compare the results with models. NASA’s report says that work is underway; it does not present a final campaign-wide analysis.
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What happened over Idaho’s Wildhorse fire?
On Aug. 26, the Gulfstream was returning from a fire farther west when the team learned that the Wildhorse grass fire in eastern Idaho was unexpectedly intense. Spotter Sarah Woods saw the remains of a pyroCb from the aircraft. After visually connecting the cloud to the fire below, the pilots turned back and sampled the cloud plume and smoke trail for about three hours.
The encounter came roughly an hour after the cloud erupted, according to NASA, making it a rare chance to observe the plume after formation. Other coordinated flights also recorded active, fire-driven atmospheric airflow. The episode illustrates why researchers cannot infer a fire’s atmospheric impact from its label alone: a grass fire that initially seemed less consequential became the campaign’s main event that day, as co-principal investigator Dave Peterson put it in NASA’s account.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the campaign has—and has not—established
INSPYRE gathered complementary measurements to investigate how pyroCbs develop and how they affect smoke transport and the atmosphere. The field observations are inputs to ongoing analysis, not proof of a settled explanation for pyroCb formation, a measured campaign-wide climate effect or a deployed forecasting method. NASA’s report gives no total for the campaign’s sampled fires or flights, and no measured mass of smoke reaching the stratosphere.
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