NRL Leads NASA Wildfire Research Mission to Better Predict Pyrocumulonimbus Storm Hazards

NRL Leads NASA Wildfire Research Mission to Better Predict Pyrocumulonimbus Storm Hazards

By Jameson Crabtree, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is leading a NASA airborne science mission to better understand dangerous wildfire-generated thunderstorms known as pyrocumulonimbus storms, or pyroCb, and the cascading hazards they create for firefighting operations, aviation, weather forecasting and national security.

The mission, called the Injected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment, or INSPYRE, is expected to deploy in midsummer 2026 and 2027, using NASA's high-altitude ER-2 aircraft based in Great Falls, Montana, to study wildfire-driven storms across the western United States and parts of Canada.

Pyrocumulonimbus storms form when intense wildfires generate towering thunderstorm clouds capable of producing lightning, tornado-like fire whirls, erratic winds and massive smoke plumes that can rise into the stratosphere. These storms can also ignite new fires through lightning strikes, creating a dangerous self-sustaining cycle that remains poorly understood.

"Pyrocumulonimbus is a unique type of severe weather linked specifically to wildfires," said David Peterson, Ph.D., research meteorologist at NRL Monterey and principal investigator for INSPYRE. "Some of these storms produce significant lightning and others produce very little. We know that lightning can ignite new fires, but we don't yet understand what drives those differences. INSPYRE gives us our first opportunity to study that process with a full suite of airborne lightning measurements."

The ER-2, flies above active weather systems and carries remote sensing instruments that allow researchers to observe storms from high altitude. One of those instruments is iSTORM, developed by NRL's Space Science Division, which is designed to measure terrestrial gamma-ray flashes associated with lightning activity.

Researchers say iSTORM will help scientists capture a type of measurement collected directly above active pyroCb events.

"The data we collect will open the door to answering new scientific questions about how lightning behaves in these fire-generated storms," Peterson said.

The campaign is funded through NASA's Earth Ventures program and spans five years, including two years of field deployments followed by three years of scientific analysis and publication. NRL serves as the lead principal investigator institution, coordinating more than 100 scientists across federal agencies, universities and research organizations.

Partner organizations include NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Nevada, Reno. A second aircraft, NSF/NCAR's Gulfstream V, will conduct in-situ sampling directly inside pyroCb plumes in 2026, while a ground team will deploy mobile radar and lidar systems near active fires.

At NRL, the effort spans multiple divisions. Scientists in Monterey lead forecasting and meteorological analysis, researchers in Washington, DC study upper atmospheric impacts of high-altitude smoke injection, and NRL's Space Science Division contributes the iSTORM instrument and gamma-ray detection expertise.

"This mission is rooted in decades of research at NRL," Peterson said. "We've spent years building the science foundation, including developing a robust database of pyrocumulonimbus events. INSPYRE is the culmination of that work and gives us the opportunity to focus exclusively on these storms at a larger scale."

Understanding pyroCb behavior is especially important for Navy operations because smoke injected into the upper atmosphere is not currently accounted for in operational forecast models, creating potential blind spots for aviation, visibility forecasting and systems dependent on atmospheric conditions.

"There is no forecast model that can fully account for pyroCb smoke injection," Peterson said. "That creates a forecast gap. For the Navy, whether it's aviation, laser technologies or other systems operating across multiple atmospheric layers, knowing where those smoke layers are matters because they can travel thousands of miles downwind within days."

The mission's first science flights are expected to begin in summer 2026, with mission headquarters operating from Colorado and the ER-2 flying from Montana.

Researchers expect the data collected during INSPYRE will improve wildfire hazard prediction, strengthen atmospheric forecasting and provide new insight into one of the least understood forms of severe weather on Earth.

About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
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