NASA Uses Modified Spy Plane to Study Wildfire Generated Storms

NASA is utilizing a modified version of the Cold War era U-2 spy plane to study pyrocumulonimbus storms, which are massive thunderstorms created by the heat of wildfires. Known as the ER-2, the aircraft serves as a flying laboratory equipped with scientific instruments instead of military defenses. The mission, titled INSPYRE (INjected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment), aims to understand the conditions that produce these erratic storms and improve future prediction tools.

David A. Peterson, a meteorologist at the Naval Research Laboratory and the principal investigator for the experiment, describes the process as similar to a chimney. He explains that a warm bubble of smoke triggers the thunderstorm, which can then produce lightning, strong winds, and fire tornadoes. Scientists recently discovered that these systems can breach natural atmospheric barriers to reach the stratosphere, where smoke is transported rapidly by jet stream winds.

The ER-2 operates at altitudes of approximately 65,000 feet, acting as a steerable satellite that orbits over wildfires to measure plume size, altitude, air motion, and electric fields. To complement this data, NASA simultaneously deploys a Gulfstream 5 jet to fly directly inside the clouds. The mission launched in July and has already conducted flights over wildfires in western Canada and northern Oregon.