Final day of GOES-10 SRSO
Beginning on 23 August, the GOES-10 satellite was placed into continuous Super Rapid Scan Operations (SRSO) mode, providing images at 1-minute intervals over a limited region of the US. 02 October was the final day of GOES-10 SRSO, and some of the interesting features that were apparent on the visible channel imagery included:
(1) a distinct “aircraft dissipation trail” (10 MB QuickTime animation, above) running north-south through a patch of cloudiness located over northeastern Kansas. GOES-12 10.7 micrometer cloud top temperatures in that particular cloud feature were in the -25 to -35 C range, and GOES Sounder Cloud Top Heights were generally 25-30 Kft, suggestive of cirrus clouds that were likely composed of ice particles; the MODIS Cloud Phase product a few hours later did in fact indicate mostly ice phase in that area of cloudiness as it moved eastward across the Kansas/Missouri border region. Small particles in the aircraft exhaust may have acted as effective ice condensation nuclei, causing the cloud ice particles to grow and begin falling out of the cloud (creating the aircraft dissipation trail signature);
(2) morning dissipation of valley fog (12 MB QuickTime animation, above) over parts of the central Appalachian Mountains region (map overlay);
(3) development of severe convection over northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin (36 MB QuickTime animation, above) which produced numerous reports of heavy rain, hail, and damaging winds (SPC storm reports).