Somewhere over the western United States right now, a NASA pilot is flying a research aircraft the size of a single-seat glider toward a towering storm cloud born from fire.

This is the INSPYRE mission — and it might be one of the most daring scientific operations of 2026.

Fire Clouds: The Wild Card of Wildfire Season

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds, or pyroCbs, are among the atmosphere's most powerful and least understood phenomena. When a wildfire burns hot enough and large enough, it generates its own weather. Heat and smoke rise in a superheated column, drawing in surrounding air and creating a towering cumulonimbus thunderstorm — one that can build to 50,000 feet and beyond.

These "fire clouds" are dangerous in ways that go far beyond the fire that creates them:

  • They generate their own lightning, which can ignite new fires miles from the original blaze
  • Their powerful updrafts disrupt aerial firefighting operations
  • They loft smoke and particulates into the stratosphere, where the particles can linger for over a year — affecting weather patterns, dimming sunlight, and degrading the ozone layer
  • In extreme cases, they can generate outflow winds that spread a fire in new directions within minutes

PyroCbs have been seen in wildfire seasons across the western US for years. In summer 2026, for the first time ever, one formed in France — a signal that these events are expanding their geographic reach as fires intensify globally.

The Mission

The INjected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment (INSPYRE) is NASA's direct response. For six weeks this summer, pilots and scientists are flying out of airbases in Colorado and Montana, chasing wildfires and the storm clouds they spawn.

The key instrument is the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL), mounted to NASA's ER-2 — a specialized high-altitude research aircraft capable of flying at 70,000 feet, well above commercial aircraft altitude. The CPL was originally developed 25 years ago by the mission's lead scientist, Professor Matthew McGill, and has been continuously upgraded since.

A 2026 enhancement enables the CPL to transmit data in real time via satellite downlink — meaning scientists on the ground can analyze atmospheric measurements while the aircraft is still in the air.

The data being gathered will help researchers answer three key questions: What fire and weather conditions combine to produce pyroCbs? How can we predict when and where they'll form? And what exactly are they doing to the upper atmosphere?

Students in the Sky

The mission also carries an unusual human element: graduate students from the University of Iowa, working alongside career NASA scientists, are participating directly in instrument operations and data collection.

"This is a very unique opportunity," said McGill. "Students learn first-hand how engineers and scientists work together to accomplish a shared mission — something most students don't get to experience."

Results from the mission are expected within a year. If INSPYRE delivers the kind of detailed pyroCb profile scientists are hoping for, it could transform how meteorologists model fire-generated weather, give fire managers better early warning of pyroCb formation, and sharpen climate models that account for stratospheric smoke loading.

Right now, the aircraft is airborne. The clouds are waiting.