Volunteer Develops Machine-Learning Tool to Identify Rare Clouds - NASA Science (.gov)

The Wildhorse grass fire in eastern Idaho erupted with a massive pulse of smoke. No one had expected it, but the wildfire had launched what’s known as a pyrocumulonimbus cloud, or pyroCb. It was an elusive weather phenomenon that scientists on NASA’s INSPYRE (INjected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment) campaign spent weeks this summer hunting across western North America. Pyrocumulonimbus clouds rise above intense fires, producing lightning and rain along with powerful winds that can whip the flames below into a fury. The largest pyroCbs funnel smoke 30,000 to 50,000 feet (10 to 15 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, as high as the cruising altitudes of commercial jets and even into the stratosphere.

The spacecraft delivered materials and equipment for new research studies to the station.

ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8061-88361, Yaser Mehri2, Ali Abdolrazaq Sabbar3, Mohammad Javad Nahvinia3 & … Mohammad Hosein Omid2 We’re sharing this article early to provide faster access to peer-reviewed, accepted research. It is citable and carries a permanent DOI. This version is subject to further edits and will be replaced automatically by the final Version of Record. All legal disclaimers apply.

The history of life on Earth doesn’t start with the Cambrian Explosion. However, this was the point in time that nearly all major animal groups appeared, proliferated, and diversified. It wiped out 90% of life on Earth, turned the oceans into graveyards – and it very nearly ended life on our planet entirely