There GOES a Review of 2022
It’s very hard to choose just one event from every month of the year, but the goal is to show the range of phenomena and locations that NOAA‘s GOES ABI routinely monitors, in this case during 2022. Most loops generated are from the University of Wisconsin-Madison CIMSS Satellite Blog, which is linked from the top of the entries. Imagery from GOES-16, -17 and -18 is showcased, along with the sectors it scans: Full Disk (10-min intervals), Contiguous US (5-min intervals) and mesoscale sectors (30-sec to 1-min intervals).
January Hunga Tonga Volcano
These GOES animations show the rapid expansion of a volcanic cloud following an explosive eruption of Hunga Tonga on 15 January 2022, as well as the pulse of energy as it spreads out from the center as evident in a series of time difference images. A similar GOES-17 ABI loop won the 2022 University of Wisconsin-Madison Cool Science Images (in the animation category).
February Snow Squalls over Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin
The greenish colors show clear, snow-covered ground, the purplish colors the low-clouds (snow squalls), while the orange colors denote high clouds. A direct link to the above mp4 video.
March Widfires and Smoke
A direct link to the loop showing the smoke plume in Texas with GOES-16 imagery every minute; as well as the 4-panel AWIPS display that included derived fire products.
April Smoke and Dust
GOES-16 (GOES-East) True Color RGB images revealed dense smoke plumes moving southeastward from wildfires in New Mexico, while blowing dust plunged southward from Colorado/Kansas (along and behind a cold front). The mp4 animation.
May Early GOES-18 ABI
GOES-T was launched on March 1st (monitored by 30-sec imagery from both GOES-16 and -17) and once it was in a geostationary orbit, became GOES-18. These image are from early in its on-orbit check-out. The mp4 loop of the ABI spectral bands. Many imagery comparisons.
June Midwest storms
1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images include time-matched SPC Storm Reports — and showed the development severe thunderstorms across parts of Iowa, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.
July Hurricane Darby
1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images showed the evolution of the eye of Hurricane Darby as it moved westward across the East Pacific Ocean on 11 July 2022. Mesovortices were evident within the eye.
Bonus case: Fog
A link to the above animation, as well as one transitioning to a composite of visible ABI bands during the day light hours.
August 30-sec imagery
The above loop, plus a visible band loop, as well as one from the longwave window infrared ABI band (which has been color-coded).
Bonus case: Ice
GOES-16 True Color RGB images showed patches of remnant thick first-year ice in southern Hudson Bay, Canada (off the coast of Ontario).
September Hurricanes Ian / Charley comparison
The mp4 loop from above demonstrating the great advances in monitoring hurricanes between 2004 and 2022, comparing GOES-16 (on the left) and GOES-12 (on the right). A 16 panel of Hurricane Ian from the ABI showing the range of scales that the ABI monitors in a given image.
October Tropical Invest
1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images showed the compact exposed low-level circulation of Tropical Invest 94L as it moved northward away from Bermuda. Satellites are key in monitoring hurricane formations.
November Volcanic eruption in Hawaii
A mp4 loop of the Ash/Dust Probability, as well as the 16 ABI spectral bands. Note there are 2 visible, 4 near-infrared and 10 infrared bands. Satellites are critical for monitoring volcanic ash that can pose a hazard to aviation safety.
December MTG-I1 Rocket Launch
EUMETSAT‘s MTG-I1 launched from French Guyana, the plume was captured with 1-min GOES-16 meso-scale sectors.
Bonus: Summer Solstice to Winter Solstice
The terminator clearly shows the changing illumination of the Earth from the Sun over the seasons, in this cases from the (northern hemisphere) summer to winter solstices. And an interactive web page. A similar loop from 2021. Several webapps that help explain the seasons. A 17 UTC daily loop over 2022.
H/T
Thanks to all who make the satellite imagery possible, the ingest and software to display the imagery (including, but not limited to McIDAS-X, geo2grid, geosphere, Real Earth and AWIPS) and all who generated CIMSS Satellite Blog entries, especially Scott Bachmeier and Scott Lindstrom. Special thanks to Mat Gunshor and Jim Nelson of UW/CIMSS.
A similar ‘Year in Review’ for 2021; 2022 by NOAA Satellites.
Also, some “top 25” GOES-16 and GOES-17 ABI loops. Also see the Satellite Liaison Blog.