CIMSS Satellite Blog

GOES-11 10.7µm InfraRed (IR) images (above; Java animation) showed an area of strong thunderstorms (exhibiting cold brightness temperatures of -70 to -80º C, black to white enhancement) expanding eastward toward the islands of American Samoa in the South Pacific Ocean on 28-29 May 2007. The motion of these storms on satellite imagery prompted the issuance of a Flash Flood Warning for the islands of Tutuila, Aunuu, and Manua at 02:54 UTC on 29 May (3:54 PM on 28 May, local time). It is important to note that there is no radar in that particular region, making satellite imagery the only forecasting tool for such hazards — however, GOES-11 Southern Hemisphere sector imagery (below) is only available over that region 2-3 times per hour.

The moon was observed adjacent to the Earth’s limb on the GOES-12 imagery at 11:15 UTC on 24 May 2007. Some of the large-scale features of the moon’s surface could be seen in the GOES-12 visible channel image (above), while the other 4 InfraRed (IR) channels (below) revealed a “banded” pattern of brightness temperatures resulting from the large thermal gradient between the very hot sunlit portion of the moon (where temperatures can reach +110º C / +230º F) and the very cold “dark” side of the moon (where temperatures can fall to -180º C / -292º F).