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GOES-14 SRSO-R: coastal fog/stratus and wildfire activity in the western US

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-14 Visible (0.63 µm) images, with hourly surface weather symbols plotted in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-14 Visible (0.63 µm) images, with hourly surface weather symbols plotted in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-14 remained in SRSO-R mode on 17 August 2016, providing imagery at 1-minute intervals over the western US. Some interesting phenomena observed included the evolution of coastal fog/stratus in areas such as Vancouver Island and Washington/Oregon (above; also available as a large 134 Mbyte animated GIF) and also the Bay Area of California (below; also available as a large 202 Mbyte animated GIF). In the example above, note the diurnal ebb and flow of fog/stratus as it first moved westward out of, and then eastward back into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.; in the example below, it is interesting to note that as the majority of the coastal fog/stratus dissipated as morning heating/mixing progressed, but a narrow finger of fog/stratus remained in the Golden Gate and protruded into San Francisco Bay.

GOES-14 Visible (0.63 µm) images, with hourly plots of surface reports in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-14 Visible (0.63 µm) images, with hourly plots of surface reports in yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

In Southern California, one of the larger wildfires burning at the time was the Blue Cut Fire northeast of Los Angeles. During the early morning hours, GOES-14 Visible (0.63 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (below; also available as a large 70 Mbyte animated GIF) revealed the long and narrow smoke plume streaming northeastward; a marked increase in wildfire hot spots (red pixels in the 3.9 µm imagery) was seen after about 17 UTC (10am local time).

GOES-14 0.63 µm Visible (left) and 3.9 µm Shortwave Infrared (right) images, with hourly plots of surface reports in cyan/yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-14 0.63 µm Visible (left) and 3.9 µm Shortwave Infrared (right) images, with hourly plots of surface reports in cyan/yellow [click to play MP4 animation]

A closer view of GOES-14 Visible (0.63 µm) images (below; also available as a large 127 Mbyte animated GIF) after 18 UTC (11am local time) showed a more well-defined smoke plume re-develop as the wildfire continued to burn with very little perimeter containment. The smoke plume drifted over Victorville, California (KVCV), where the surface visibility briefly dropped to 7 miles at 22 UTC (surface observation plot).

GOES-14 Visible (0.63 µm) images, with county outlines and 4-character airport identifiers [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-14 Visible (0.63 µm) images, with county outlines and 4-character airport identifiers [click to play MP4 animation]

Categories: Fire detection, GOES-14, GOES-R