Stray Light in GOES-13 Imagery
GOES-13 3.9 µm infrared channel images (click to play animation)
GOES-13 is currently in Autumn Eclipse Season, when the Earth-Satellite-Sun geometry means that solar energy can reach the satellite sensors directly. NOAA NESDIS has software to mitigate the effects of Stray Light in the Sensor Processing System (SPS) that transforms the raw GOES Imager data to navigated and calibrated (GVAR) data. However, earlier this month, the SPS at Wallops inadvertently omitted the Stray Light Correction. The animation above, from 16-27 August, shows how Stray Light intruded into the 3.9 µm imagery on the GOES-13 Imager; on 25 August the Stray Light Correction was turned back on, and the final two images show no major Stray Light effects over the satellite view (Stray Light is still recorded in outer space). The animation above is for 5:15 UTC, when Stray Light affected the eastern part of the full disk scan. At 4:45 UTC, Stray Light affected the western part of the disk, and at 05:00 UTC, the central part of the disk.
Click here for more about the Stray Light Correction.