How We Recreated the Dixie Wildfire’s Plume from Radar and Satellite Data | by Nick Bartzokas | NYT Open | NYT Open

In mid-July, 2021, the Dixie fire ignited in California. Days later, it began to exhibit an increasingly common and concerning behavior. It created its own weather, producing storm clouds, winds, and lightning. In October of that year, The New York Times published a visual recreation of the fire’s activity. This coverage took a team of diverse talents. This article highlights the technical work, specifically that of Evan Grothjan, Daniel Mangosing, Scott Reinhard and myself. To learn more about the inspiration and reporting that went into this piece, check out this Times Insider article for some perspective from our teammates Noah Pisner, Nadja Popovich, and Karthik Patanjali. Neil Lareau, an atmospheric scientist who studies wildfires, advised us on this project. He popularized a technique for creating 3D animations of wildfire plumes from radar data. We decided to adapt that technique for an interactive web article and an AR story on Instagram. Our newsroom’s graphics editors in coll

In mid-July, 2021, the Dixie fire ignited in California. Days later, it began to exhibit an increasingly common and concerning behavior. It created its own weather, producing storm clouds, winds, and lightning. In October of that year, The New York Times published a visual recreation of the fire’s activity. This coverage took a team of diverse talents. This article highlights the technical work, specifically that of Evan Grothjan, Daniel Mangosing, Scott Reinhard and myself. To learn more about the inspiration and reporting that went into this piece, check out this Times Insider article for so

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