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30-second imagery of severe thunderstorms across the Upper Midwest

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOE S-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with time-matched SPC Storm Reports plotted in red [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Overlapping 1-minute GOES-16 (GOES-East) Mesoscale Domain Sectors provided 30-second “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above), which included time-matched plots of SPC Storm Reports — showing clusters of thunderstorms that moved eastward across parts of Illinois, Indiana and Lower Michigan on 03 August 2022.

The corresponding 30-second GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (below) indicated that the coldest overshooting tops exhibited infrared brightness temperatures around -80ºC (violet pixels within areas of brighter white enhancement). In addition, an animation of 30-second GOES-16 Visible/Infrared Sandwich RGB images is available here.

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with time-matched SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

In a toggle between NOAA-20 VIIRS Infrared (11.45 µm) and GOES-16 ABI “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images valid at 1924 UTC (below), the northwestward shift in GOES-16 image cloud-top features was associated with parallax (which in this case was a distance around 18-19km for the maximum Cloud Top Heights of 50,000-52,000 feet). The coldest NOAA-20 cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures at that time were around -84ºC (over far southern Lake Michigan), compared to around -77ºC with GOES-16 (identical color enhancements were applied to both images).

NOAA-20 Infrared Window (11.45 µm) and GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images valid at 1924 UTC [click to enlarge]

However, in a toggle between NOAA-20 Infrared Window (11.45 µm) and GOES-16 Cloud Top Temperature (CTT) derived product images valid at 1924 UTC (below), the coldest sensed cloud-top temperature values over far southern Lake Michigan were closer (-84ºC with NOAA-20, vs -80ºC with the GOES-16 CTT product).

NOAA-20 Infrared Window (11.45 µm) and GOES-16 Cloud Top Temperature derived product images valid at 1924 UTC [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, NOAA-20, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Severe convection, VIIRS