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Testing of GOES-16 and GOES-17 Mode 6 scan strategy

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16

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

Both GOES-16 (GOES-East) and GOES-17 (GOES-West) were placed into the Mode 6 scan strategy for a 3-day period of testing beginning at 1500 UTC on 19  February 2019 — which provides Full Disk images every 10 minutes (instead of every 15 minutes for the more common Mode 3 scan strategy). Further details on GOES-R series scan modes are available here and here. GOES-16 Full Disk “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images are shown above, with Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images below.

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images [click to play animation]

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images [click to play animation]

One of the more striking features over the North Atlantic Ocean was a rapidly-intensifying Hurricane Force low — an animation that cycles through GOES-16 Visible and Water Vapor images of this system is displayed below.

GOES-16 "Red" Visible (0.64 µm) and Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images [click to play animation]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images [click to play animation]

GOES-16 Air Mass RGB images from the AOS site (below) exhibited the orange-to-red hues of ozone-rich air within the atmospheric column due to a lowered tropopause associated with the rapidly deepening North Atlantic storm.

GOES-16 Air Mass RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Air Mass RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

Looking to the west with GOES-17, Full Disk animations of Visible and Water Vapor images are shown below.

GOES-17 "Red" Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation]

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation]

GOES-17 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images [click to play animation]

GOES-17 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images [click to play animation]

The more frequent 10-minute images allowed a short-lived signature of orographic waves within a transient dry slot immediately downwind (northeast) of Atka (PAAK) in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska  (below) — such a signature often indicates a high potential of turbulence. There were also areas of transverse banding seen with the jet stream cirrus just southeast of Atka (another satellite signature of turbulence).

GOES-17 Low-level (7.3 µm) and Mid-level (6.9 µm) Water Vapor images [click to play animation]

GOES-17 Low-level (7.3 µm, left) and Mid-level (6.9 µm, right) Water Vapor images [click to play animation]

Similar to what was seen over the North Atlantic, GOES-17 Air Mass RGB images (below) exhibited the orange-to-red hues of ozone-rich air within the atmospheric column due to a lowered tropopause poleward of the jet stream axis as it moved northeastward across the Aleutians.

GOES-17 Air Mass RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 Air Mass RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

Categories: GOES-16, GOES-17, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images