March 15, 2018 Beaver Dam Control Burn View From Radar And Satellite

A controlled burn of an apartment building in Beaver Dam occurred this morning, Thursday, March 15, 2018. Below are some views of the smoke plume and related imagery from our Doppler radar and GOES-16 satellite imagery:

Below is a 4 panel image of satellite and radar imagery at 11:17 AM CDT:

The top left image is the GOES-16 shortwave infrared image. This is a useful image to show where hotpots (and subsequent fires) are located, as it detects temperature in the shortwave infrared spectrum. The circled area on the north side of Beaver Dam shows an area where there was a relative warm spot. This was the approximate location of the controlled burn.

The top right image is the 0.5 degree base reflectivity image from our Doppler radar. It shows the light reflectivity returns to the radar, associated with the smoke plume, spreading to the south southeast of Beaver Dam. The radar is quite sensitive, so it was the first to pick up on the smoke plume's spread from the control burn.

The bottom left image is the 0.5 degree differential reflectivity image from our Doppler radar. It shows how any reflected energy to the radar is oriented. The brighter colors indicate that there is more horizontal extent to the smoke plume particles detected than vertical extent. This makes sense, as the smoke plume is spreading out at a greater rate horizontally than vertically.

The bottom right image is the 0.5 degree correlation coefficient image from our Doppler radar. It shows how alike (or not alike) the detected energy from the radar is, in relation to each other. In this image, the dark blues associated with the smoke plume are showing that the detected particles are very different in size and shape from each other.

Below is a 0.5 degree base reflectivity animation of the smoke plume during the main portion of the controlled burn in Beaver Dam (between 10:36 AM and 12:15 PM CDT Thursday, March 15, 2018):

Wood
NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan, WI