CIMSS GOES 40th Anniversary Animation Contest Results
Winners
Thanks to all those who participated in this event. The submissions demonstrate the wide variety of capabilities, and while difficult we have selected three winners that demonstrate these capabilities.
The winners, ordered by GOES satellite used in their winning animation are:
Submissions
| First Name | Last Name | Affiliation | Email Address | Animation Title | Description | Link to Animation (URL) | Preview image |
| Tim | Schmit | NOAA NESDIS | tims@ssec.wisc.edu | GOES-1: Cyclone from 1979 | GOES-1 was the first operational geostationary satellite, launched in 1975. Part of its lifetime was spent over the Indian Ocean, in support of a large field experiment. This sequence shows visible imagery during the afternoon of April 10, 1979. A cyclone is clearly evident, along with the sun glint (reflects off the water) and the sub-continent of India. The panel on the right is a magnification of the cyclone. McIDAS-X was used to produce these images, using data from the SSEC Data Center. NOAA operates the GOES. | http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/contest/GOES01_animation_visible_1979100.mp4 | |
| Bob | Rabin | NOAA/NSSL and CIMSS | rabin@ssec.wisc.edu | Satellite imagery of developing storm near Denver: wind observations from satellite and Doppler radar (TDWR) | Visible imagery of developing severe thunderstorm which produced large hail near Denver, CO on May 20 2014. Imagery is at 5-minute intervals (20-22 UTC) from the GOES-14 geostationary satellite. Wind flags are estimated from cloud movement using an automated method developed at the Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. They indicate wind direction and speed and are colour coded by height: Blue, green, red, yellow (lower levels to high). Colours in filled circle indicate direction and speed of winds in the lower atmosphere from Terminal Doppler Weather Radar near the DIA airport (courtesy FAA). GIF animation: / http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~rabin/gifs/anim_winds_tdwr_20may14_20_22.gif | https://vimeo.com/142096942 | |
| Scott | Bachmeier | CIMSS | scott.bachmeier@ssec.wisc.edu | Intense Eastern Pacific / Gulf of Alaska Storm | GOES-15 6.5 µm water vapor channel images displayed the development of a classic “dry swirl” water vapor signature indicating the transition of a mature cyclone to its occluded phase during the 01 April – 02 April 2012 time period. The NWS Ocean Prediction Center was forecasting large areas of hurricane force winds associated with this storm. The approach of a strong Potential Vorticity (PV) anomaly helped the storm to intensify rapidly, with with model fields indicating the tropopause (taken to be the pressure level of the PV1.5 surface) lowering to around the 900 millibar level by 06 UTC on 02 April. | http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/120401-02_g15_wv_gulf_of_alaska_anim.gif | images/scott_bachmeier_intense_eastern_pacific_storm.png |
| First Name | Last Name | Affiliation | Email Address | Animation Title | Description | Link to Animation (URL) | Preview image |
| Scott | Bachmeier | CIMSS | scott.bachmeier@ssec.wisc.edu | Smoke from Rim Fire Complex in California | A sequence of 1-minute interval GOES-14 Super Rapid Scan for GOES-R (SRSO-R) 0.63 µm visible channel images on 22 August 2013 showed that the initial northward motion of smoke from the Rim Fire Complex in central California began to transition to a more northeasterly motion after about 17 UTC. This was due to a shift in the winds aloft as a semi-stationary cut-off low just west of the coast of California began to move northward during the day. This change in winds aloft and smoke plume transport prompted the National Weather Service forecast office at Reno, Nevada to amend their forecasts for some areas to include the mention of smoke and haze. Surface visibilities at locations such as South Lake Tahoe were reduced as low as 1.25 miles once the smoke plume began to move over that area. | https://pyrocb.ssec.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/130822_g14_vis_srso_rim_fire_CA_anim.gif | images/scott_bachmeier_smoke_from_rim_fire.png |
| Scott | Bachmeier | CIMSS | scott.bachmeier@ssec.wisc.edu | Severe thunderstorm over West Texas, as viewed from 3 GOES satellites | Thunderstorms began to develop across West Texas during the afternoon hours on 19 May 2015, along and ahead of an eastward-moving dryline. One of the storms went on to produce a few brief tornadoes, and hail as large as 3.0 inches in diameter. Different views of this storm were provided by GOES-15 (GOES-West), GOES-14 (in SRSO-R mode), and GOES-13 (GOES-East) 0.63 µm visible channel images. This comparison highlights the advantages of 1-minute interval Super Rapid Scan Operations images (which will be available from GOES-R) compared to the standard 15-minute interval Routine Scan images provided by the current generation of GOES. | http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/150519_goes15_goes14_goes13_visible_Texas_severe_thunderstorms_anim.gif | images/scott_bachmeier_severe_thunderstorm_over_texas.png |
| Scott | Bachmeier | CIMSS | scott.bachmeier@ssec.wisc.edu | GOES-14 Full Disk images at 30-minute intervals | As a part of the GOES-14 Super Rapid Scan Operations for GOES-R (SRSO-R) testing, the satellite provided full-disk images at 30-minute intervals during the day on 14 September 2012 (with current GOES satellites, the operational full-disk image interval is 3 hours; the ABI instrument on GOES-R will provide a full-disk image every 5 minutes). The GOES-14 0.63 µm visible channel images revealed two features of interest over the eastern portion of the full disk which were more obvious due to the large forward scattering geometry early in the day: (1) a large pall of smoke over the Amazon basin and much of interior South America, a result of widespread biomass burning, and (2) Saharan Air Layer dust located to the north, east, and southeast of Tropical Storm Nadine in the North Atlantic Ocean. | http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/120914_g14_fd_vis_anim.gif | images/scott_bachmeier_goes_14_full_disk.png |
| Scott | Bachmeier | CIMSS | scott.bachmeier@ssec.wisc.edu | Eruption of the Shiveluch Volcano on Kamchatka | An eruption of the Shiveluch volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula began around 2210 UTC on 25 March 2015. GOES-15 viewed the eruption, at the extreme edge of its limb, as seen on this sequence of 0.63 µm visible channel images (Shiveluch is located at the center of the images). The volcanic plume then moved rapidly toward the southwest, due to strong northwesterly flow at high altitudes. | http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/150325-26_goes15_visible_Shiveluch_volcanic_plume_anim.gif | images/scott_bachmeier_volcano_eruption.png |
| John | Guenther | Virginia Tech, student | jguenth3@vt.edu | GOES Program 40th Anniversary Tribute | This video is a tribute to NASA and NOAA’s GOES Program in honor of its 40th year of operations. All the material is from NASA and NOAA open sources, including the NASA-NOAA GOES Project Website. The satellite animations were produced using AGI’s Systems Toolkit (STK). The music was provided royalty-free by Purple Planet Music. / / It is intended to be a fun and educational introduction to GOES for the general public, with video clips featuring both the satellites themselves and the data products. / / About me: I’m a student studying aerospace engineering at Virginia Tech. I had the opportunity to work for a summer with the GOES team at the NOAA Space Operations Facility. It was a great experience, and I got to learn all about the GOES constellation and its mission. This video is dedicated to the hard-working operators, engineers, scientists, and professionals of the GOES Program. | https://vimeo.com/141238803 | |
| Mat | Gunshor | SSEC/CIMSS | matg@ssec.wisc.edu | Birth of a Satellite Meteorologist (Kenosha, WI) | On Dec 27, 1986 there was an unusual amount of fog covering the Mississippi Valley from Minnesota down to the Gulf of Mexico and over into parts of the Ohio Valley for most of the day. While fog in December is not unusual, the area covered by fog and the duration of it lasting past sundown is unusual. Coincidentally, it was the birthdate of one of our colleagues at CIMSS in Kenosha, WI. The animation is of the visible channel on GOES-6 from 17:31 to 23:31UTC. Unfortunately, the SSEC archive does not include the entire day. | http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/~matg/960x1600_AGOES06_A-VIS_B1_40th_GOES06_FOGGYDECEMBER_animated_1986361_173100_30_1986361_233100_30_FOGGY.mp4 | |
| Dan | Lindsey | NOAA/NESDIS/STAR/RAMMB | Dan.Lindsey@noaa.gov | GOES-14: Two days of Severe Storms in the Central Plains | GOES-14 was operating in Super Rapid Scan Operations for GOES-R (SRSOR) on May 10-11, 2014, and collected 1-minute imagery of two consective days of severe storms in the Central Plains of the U.S. Recommend watching at full HD resolution (1080p) and full screen, with audio on for effect. | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUeff-mq9rw&feature=youtu.be | |
| Scott | Lindstrom | University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center/Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies | scott.lindstrom@ssec.wisc.edu | GOES 5 Color-Enhanced Infrared Animation showing Conditional Symmetric Instability | GOES 5 Captures the release of Conditional Symmetric Instability over northeast Arkansas late on 2 Decemeber 1982. | https://vimeo.com/141993115 | |
| Scott | Lindstrom | University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center/Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies | scott.lindstrom@ssec.wisc.edu | GOES-6 Visible rocking animation showing the release of Convective-Symmetric Instability | GOES-6 visible imagery captures the release of parallel bands of simultaneous convective development, i.e., convective-symmetric instability, over Louisiana on 5 June 1986. | https://vimeo.com/141993176 | |
| Jim | Nelson | CIMSS | jim.nelson@ssec.wisc.edu | 3-Panel, 30-Minute, Full Disk GOES-13 Imager Loop From the GOES-13 Checkout: 09-11Dec2006 | A special scan sequence was run during the on-orbit check-out of GOES-13. This consisted of full disk imagery every 30 minutes, as opposed to the operational cadence of every three hours. The spectral bands shown are the visible, water vapor and infrared window. The latter two bands have been color-coded. Each band shows unique features, the visible showing the reflected sunlight, the water vapor regions of clouds and dry air and the infrared window showing the heat of the emitted surface (ocean, land, and clouds). The animation begins on December 09, 2006 at 16:45 UTC and ends on December 11, 2006 at 15:45 UTC. | https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/rt/jimn/930x960_AGOES13_FD_B134_40th_GOES13_FULLDISK_animated_2006343_164500_180_2006345_094500_180_X_WVCOLOR37_IR4AVHRR4.mp4 | |
| Jim | Nelson | CIMSS | jim.nelson@ssec.wisc.edu | Hurricane Katrina -- Visible and IR Window Side-by-Side | Hurricane Katrina is shown as a 2-panel, the left-hand side being the visible and the right hand side the infrared window. The animation covers the time period from 06:15 UTC on August 25 to 03:45 UTC on August 31, 2005. NOAA has reported the economic cost from Hurricane Katrina to be approximately $151 Billion. McIDAS-X was used to produce these images, using data from the SSEC Data Center. | http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/contest/960x960_AGOES12_NH_B14_40th_GOES12_KATRINA_animated_2005237_101500_78_2005243_004500_78_X_IR4AVHRR4.mp4 | |
| Bob | Rabin | NOAA/NSSL and CIMSS | rabin@ssec.wisc.edu | Thunderstorm over Barrow, Alaska: a perspective from satellite | Visible imagery over Alaska from the GOES-15 geostationary satellite on June 13, 2013. Cloud locations have been corrected for parallax. The imagery is unique in that a thunderstorm moved through the Barrow area (for the first time in the memory of local residents) at the same time as sea ice can be seen in the Chukchi Sea (Arctic Ocean). Visible imagery is available 24 hours a day at this time of year at these high latitudes. Data and image processing (McIDAS) courtesy of Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. / / Animated gif: / http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~rabin/gifs/animation_ak_13jun13.gif | https://vimeo.com/142096070 | |
| Bob | Rabin | NOAA/NSSL and CIMSS | rabin@ssec.wisc.edu | Satellite imagery of developing hail storm near Denver: wind observations from satellite and Doppler radar (WSR-88D) | Visible imagery of developing severe thunderstorm which produced large hail near Denver, CO on May 20 2014. Imagery is at 5-minute intervals (20-22 UTC) from the GOES-14 geostationary satellite. Wind flags are estimated from cloud movement using an automated method developed at the Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. They indicate wind direction and speed and are colour coded by height: Blue, green, red, yellow (lower levels to high). Colours in filled circles indicate direction and speed of winds in the lower atmosphere from WSR-88D Doppler Weather Radars (courtesy NOAA/National Weather Service). / Animated GIF: / http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~rabin/gifs/anim_winds_radar_20may14_20_22.gif | https://vimeo.com/142098084 | |
| Bob | Rabin | NOAA/NSSL and CIMSS | rabin@ssec.wisc.edu | Satellite imagery of developing hail storm near Denver: wind observations from GOES-14 satellite | Visible imagery of developing severe thunderstorm which produced large hail near Denver, CO on May 20 2014. Imagery is at 5-minute intervals (20-22 UTC) from the GOES-14 geostationary satellite. Wind flags are estimated from cloud movement using an automated method developed at the Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. They indicate wind direction and speed and are colour coded by height: Blue, green, red, yellow (lower levels to high). / Animated GIF: / http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~rabin/gifs/anim_winds_20may14_20_22.gif | https://vimeo.com/142004944 | |
| Tim | Schmit | NOAA NESDIS | tims@ssec.wisc.edu | GOES-5: Infrared window over Central U.S. | Infrared imagery can show the cloud field both during the day and night. GOES-5 captured a series of severe weather over the Midwest/Plains and Southeast. Note the cold (black into the red) cloud tops. The animation begins on April 2, 1982 at 00:00 UTC and ends on April 4, 1982 at 04:00 UTC. McIDAS-X was used to produce these images, using data from the SSEC Data Center. NOAA operates the GOES and has estimated the impact of these to be more than one billion dollars. | http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/contest/GOES05_animation_central_IR_faster.mp4 | |
| Tim | Schmit | NOAA NESDIS | tims@ssec.wisc.edu | GOES-12: Volcano over South America | After its operational life, GOES-12 was repositioned to 60 West longitude to support South America. What is shown is a 2-panel, with the left hand side showing the visible (reflected sunlight), while the right hand side panel displays the shortwave window. The hot spot associated with a volcano is clearly seen (dark spot). GOES and other satellites are critical to monitor volcanoes to improved aviation safety. The animation begins on June 4, 2011 at 14:15 UTC and ends at 22:58 UTC. McIDAS-X was used to produce these images, using data from the SSEC Data Center. NOAA operates the GOES. | http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/contest/960x740_AGOES12_ALL_B12_40th_GOES12_VOLCANO_2_animated_2011155_141500_78_2011155_225800_78_VOL_IR2_HOT_VOL.mp4 | |
| Tim | Schmit | NOAA NESDIS | tims@ssec.wisc.edu | GOES-13: Polar Vortex seen in the Infrared Window | Normally, infrared temperatures colder than a certain threshold just highlight clouds. Yet, in the winter of 2014, the cold area outbreaks were clearly seen by the GOES Imager. The animation begins on January 1, 2011 at 00:15 UTC and ends January 11, at 19:40 UTC. McIDAS-X was used to produce these images, using data from the SSEC Data Center. NOAA operates the GOES. | http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/contest/960x1280_AGOES13_CONUS_B4_40th_GOES13_POLARV_animated_2014001_100200_180_2014011_094500_180_IR4AVHRR2.mp4 | |
| Tim | Schmit | NOAA NESDIS | tims@ssec.wisc.edu | GOES-14: Hurricane Sandy – including 1-minute imagery | GOES-14 is currently an on-orbit backup for the East and West satellites. For select times, GOES-14 has been operated in a special mode, to better prepare for the next generation advanced imager. The animation covers between 13:45 and 19:45 UTC, on October 26, 2012. These first and last images are full disk images, while 1-mintue images of hurricane Sandy are also shown. In addition, other features are of interest, including clouds, rivers, fog, and thunderstorms. McIDAS-V was used to produce these images, using data from the SSEC Data Center. NOAA operates the GOES. | http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/contest/GOES14_animation_Sandy_visible_2min.mp4 |