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Satellite signatures of the EUMETSAT MTG-S1 launch

By Scott Bachmeier •

1-minute GOES-19 (GOES-East) Rocket Plume RGB images [click to play MP4 animation]

The EUMETSAT MTG-S1 satellite was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida at 2104 UTC on 01 July 2025 — using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. A thermal signature of the Falcon 9 Stage 1 rocket booster (as well as the Stage 2 rocket, after separation from the booster just before 2106 UTC) were apparent in 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector Rocket Plume RGB images (created using Geo2Grid) from GOES-19 (GOES-East) (above) and GOES-18 (GOES-West) (below). More details about the hyperspectral sounder instrument on MTG-S1 are available in this blog post.

1-minute GOES-18 (GOES-West) Rocket Plume RGB images [click to play MP4 animation]

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1-minute multi-panel displays of all 16 ABI spectral bands from GOES-19 (GOES-East) [click to play MP4 animation]

In 1-minute multi-panel displays of all 16 ABI spectral bands from GOES-19/GOES-East (above) and GOES-18/GOES-West (below), a brighter thermal+reflectance signature of the Falcon 9 rocket booster was evident in all Near-Infrared bands (03-06) along with a warmer thermal signature in all Infrared bands (07-16) — most notably at 2105 UTC (GOES-19 | GOES-18), although the signature in Near-Infrared band 03 imagery was quite subtle (and located directly over a narrow low-altitude cloud feature in the GOES-18 view). The thermal signature was very prominent in the Shortwave Infrared band (07) due to its greater sensitivity to higher temperatures — as well as in the Water Vapor infrared bands (08/09/10), since the rocket exhaust plume contained a large amount of superheated water vapor.

1-minute multi-panel displays of all 16 ABI spectral bands from GOES-18 (GOES-West) [click to play MP4 animation]

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1-minute True Color RGB images from GOES-18/GOES-West (left) and GOES-19/GOES-East (right) [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute GOES-18 and GOES-19 True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (above) revealed that the Falcon 9 rocket booster condensation cloud plume quickly dissipated just off the Florida coast — due to the combination of dry air and wind shear at high altitudes (above the 300 hPa pressure level), as seen in a plot of rawinsonde data from Cocoa Beach (KXMR) (below).

Plot of rawinsonde data from Cocoa Beach, Florida (KXMR) at 1500 UTC on 01 July [click to enlarge]

Categories: Geo2Grid, GOES-18, GOES-19, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Rocket signatures