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GOES-16 GLM signature of a meteor over Florida

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Near-Infrared "Snow/Ice" (1.61 µm, left), Near-Infrared "Cloud Particle Size" (2.24 µm, center) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, right) images, with 1-minute plots of GLM Events [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm, left), Near-Infrared “Cloud Particle Size” (2.24 µm, center) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, right) images, with 1-minute plots of GLM Events [click to enlarge]

A sequence of three GOES-16 Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm), Near-Infrared “Cloud Particle Size” (2.24 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images with 1-minute plots of GLM Events (above) showed the brief signature of a meteor over the Florida Panhandle during the 0353-0354 UTC time period on 31 March, or 11:53-11:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time on 30 March 2019. The bright meteor signature was captured over northern Taylor County, northwest of the Perry-Foley Airport (station identifier K40J) — the GLM Events are plotted at their approximate location on the Earth’s surface (using the default GLM parallax correction).

The GOES-16 ABI instrument was scanning that portion of the Florida Panhandle at 03:52:54 UTC, slightly earlier than the time that the fireball flash was sensed by the GLM instrument, so no corresponding thermal signature was evident in the infrared imagery.

Categories: GLM, GOES-16, Lightning