INSPYRE
NASA Science ·
Designed to investigate how extreme wildfires can generate powerful thunderstorm-like clouds that inject smoke high into the atmosphere. The post INSPYRE appeared first on NASA Science .
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NASA’s INjected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment (INSPYRE) campaign is designed to investigate how extreme wildfires can generate powerful thunderstorm-like clouds that inject smoke high into the atmosphere.
Mission Type
Launch
Objective
By combining aircraft and ground-based observations with satellite data, INSPYRE researchers are working to improve our understanding of wildfire-driven storms, advance models that could help protect firefighters and communities, and provide data to refine atmospheric models.
Pyrocumulonimbus clouds (pyroCbs) that form over fire-driven storms can loft smoke directly into the stratosphere. The smoke may persist for several months or more, altering atmospheric chemistry, affecting downstream weather, and potentially contributing to ozone depletion.
Researchers with the INSPYRE mission will study the processes that cause pyroCbs to determine why some storms inject smoke higher than others, and to examine how smoke plumes evolve once they enter the upper atmosphere.
By combining airborne and ground-based measurements with satellite observations and modeling, INSPYRE will address three science questions:
During the 2026 wildfire season, INSPYRE researchers will deploy a host of remote sensing and air sampling instruments aboard NASA’s high-altitude ER-2 aircraft and the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Gulfstream V . In addition, the mission will gather data on pyroCbs with ground-based instruments and satellite observations. The researchers plan to observe a wide range of wildfire behavior, from small fires that create modest pyrocumulus clouds to large pyroCb-generating fires capable of injecting smoke into the stratosphere at levels comparable to volcanic eruptions.
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