Giant wildfires can create their own weather. Here's how.
Wildfires can generate tornado-like fire whirls and other "unpredictable and erratic" weather. An atmospheric scientist explains how.
Kyle Hilburn
Research Scientist in Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University
Kyle Wilburn, Ph.D., is a research scientist at CIRA. His passion for satellite retrievals and precipitation led him to join CIRA in 2016, which provided him the exciting opportunity to analyze data from the new GOES-R Series Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instruments. His main focus has been on using GOES to better initialize convection in high-resolution weather models. Working with data from GLM sparked his interest in lightning. He is also fascinated with the power of artificial intelligence / machine learning to extract spatio-temporal patterns in satellite imagery. His recent research has used convolutional neural networks to extract precipitation latent heating rates from GOES ABI+GLM to inform numerical weather prediction models. He has developed approaches for visualizing and interpreting what the machine has learned. Kyle is also involved in satellite data applications for monitoring and modeling wildfires. Kyle previously worked for Remote Sensing Systems in Santa Rosa, California, where he worked as a Scientist and Lead Software Developer. His research initially focused on improving QuikSCAT wind retrievals in raining scenes, but this evolved into a broader pursuit of precipitation retrievals from passive microwave imagers. Kyle also studied the use of microwave satellite observations to better constrain the global water cycle.
