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Severe thunderstorm over West Texas, as viewed from 3 GOES satellites

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-15 (left), GOES-14 (center), and GOES-13 (right) 0.62 µm visible channel images [click to play animation]

GOES-15 (left), GOES-14 (center), and GOES-13 (right) 0.62 µm visible channel images [click to play animation]

Thunderstorms began to develop across West Texas during the afternoon hours on 19 May 2015, along and ahead of an eastward-moving dryline. One of the storms went on to produce a few brief tornadoes, and hail as large as 3.0 inches in diameter (SPC storm reports). Different views of this storm were provided by GOES-15 (GOES-West), GOES-14 (in SRSO-R mode), and GOES-13 (GOES-East) 0.62 µm visible channel images (above; click image to play 190 MB animated GIF; also available as an MP4 movie file, or on YouTube). This comparison highlights the advantages of 1-minute interval Super Rapid Scan images (which will be available from GOES-R) compared to the standard 15-minute interval Routine Scan images provided by the current generation of GOES.

One interesting feature seen on the visible channel images above was the apparent merger of the large dominant dryline storm and a smaller northward-moving storm that had formed in Mexico (radar animation). In GOES-13 10.7 µm IR imagery with an overlay of SPC storm reports (below; click image to play animation), one report of 2.0-inch diameter hail was seen around or shortly after the time of the storm merger.

GOES-13 10.7 µm IR channel images (click to play animation)

GOES-13 10.7 µm IR channel images (click to play animation)

With higher spatial resolution IR imagery from MODIS (1-km), VIIRS (375-meter), and AVHRR (1-km), much colder cloud-top IR brightness temperatures were seen (below) compared to the corresponding 4-km resolution GOES IR imagery at those times — especially during the early formative stages of the thunderstorms captured with MODIS and VIIRS. The coldest cloud-top IR brightness temperature on the 2128 UTC AVHHRR image was -80º C, compared to -67º C on the 2130 UTC GOES image.

Terra and Aqua MODIS 11.0 µm, Suomi NPP VIIRS 11.45 µm, and POES AVHRR 12.0 µm IR channel images

Terra and Aqua MODIS 11.0 µm, Suomi NPP VIIRS 11.45 µm, and POES AVHRR 12.0 µm IR channel images

A more detailed discussion of this event can be found on the RAMMB GOES-R Proving Ground Blog.

Categories: AVHRR, GOES-13, GOES-14, GOES-15, GOES-R, MODIS, POES, Severe convection, Suomi NPP, VIIRS, YouTube