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Satellite signatures of the EUMETSAT Sentinel-6B launch

By Scott Bachmeier •

Multi-panel display of all 16 ABI spectral bands on GOES-18, from 0521-0524 UTC on 17 November [click to play MP4 animation]

The EUMETSAT Sentinel-6B satellite was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Center in California at 0521 UTC on 17 November 2025 (9:21 PM Pacific Time on 16 November). A 1-minute multi-panel display of all 16 ABI spectral bands on the GOES-18 (GOES-West) satellite (above) showed that a thermal signature of the Falcon 9 rocket booster was evident in many of the spectral bands — particularly the Near-Infrared bands 03/04/05/06 and Infrared bands 07/08/09/10 and 16. However, subtle thermal signatures could be seen in the other Infrared spectral bands as well.

In addition, a signature of the glaciated rocket condensation cloud (darker blue pixels) was seen in Nighttime Microphysics RGB images (below) as it drifted eastward away from the launch site.

1-minute GOES-18 Nighttime Microphysics RGB images, from 0521-0536 UTC on 17 November [click to play MP4 animation]

A plot of 0000 UTC rawinsonde data from Vandenberg (below) showed the presence of westerly winds throughout the depth of the troposphere, which were responsible for the eastward drift of the rocket booster condensation cloud.

Plot of rawinsonde data from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California at 0000 UTC on 17 November [click to enlarge]

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