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GOES-16 is on-station at 75.2ºW, ready to soon become GOES-East

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Full-Disk Mid-level Water Vapor image [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 Full-Disk Mid-level Water Vapor images [click to enlarge]

* GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational and are undergoing testing *

The GOES-16 satellite finished its eastward drift from the initial check-out position at 89.5º West longitude, arriving at 75.2º West on 11 December 2017 — and should officially be declared the operational GOES-East satellite by 20 December. Shown here are some of the first GOES-16 images that began flowing on 14 December via GOES Rebroadcast (GRB) and the Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN): Full Disk Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) (above) and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) (below).  Similar Full Disk animations of Lower-level (7.3 µm) and Upper-level (6.2 µm) Water Vapor images are available here and here.

GOES-16 Full-Disk Visible (0.64 µm) image [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 Full-Disk Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Taking a closer look at the 15-minute Full Disk Visible imagery (below), smoke from wildfires burning in Southern California could seen moving a considerable distance to the southwest over the Pacific Ocean. Note that the smoke features became brighter toward sunset — this was due to a more favorable forward scattering geometry between the sun, the smoke and the satellite sensors.

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation]

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation]

Since the atmospheric column over that region of the Pacific was quite dry (as seen in the Water Vapor imagery), the Near-Infrared “Cirrus” (1.37 µm) images (below) were able to display a subtle signature of the smoke features — recall that the strength of the 1.37 µm spectral band is detection of particles that are efficient scatterers of light (such as cirrus ice crystals, volcanic ash, dust and smoke).

GOES-16 Near-Infrared

GOES-16 Near-Infrared “Cirrus” (1.37 µm) images [click to play animation]

The 2 examples below show that GOES-16 CONUS sector coverage and resolution over the western US is still quite good (even with the large satellite viewing angle).

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) image [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) image of the southwestern US [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) image, showing thermal signatures of wildfires in Southern California [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images, showing smoke plumes and thermal signatures of wildfires in Southern California [click to enlarge]

A multi-panel image featuring all 16 spectral bands of the GOES-16 ABI at 1537 UTC is shown below.

Multi-panel images showing all 16 bands of the GOES-16 ABI [click to enlarge]

Multi-panel images showing all 16 bands of the GOES-16 ABI [click to enlarge]

Realtime GOES-16 ABI imagery can be found at: https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/geo/#/animation?satellite=goes-16 and https://re.ssec.wisc.edu/s/QFMBi.

Categories: Fire detection, GOES-16