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Hurricane Barbara in the East Pacific

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom) images [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above) showed the eye of Category 4 Hurricane Barbara on 02 July 2019. Mesovortices were briefly seen within the eye in the Visible imagery. Barbara was moving through an environment of low deep-layer wind shear and over warm water, factors favorable for rapid intensification (ADT | SATCON).

DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) imagery from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) showed a closed eyewall at 1448 UTC.

DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) image [click to enlarge]

DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) image [click to enlarge]

A 1700 UTC  GOES-17 “Red” Visible image with an overlay of Metop-A ASCAT winds (below) revealed surface scatterometer wind speeds as high as 76 knots just north of the eye.

GOES-17

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Metop-A ASCAT winds [click to enlarge]

===== 03 July Update =====

GOES-17 "Red" Visible (0.64 µm, top) and "Clean" Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom) images [click to play animation | MP4]

Barbara maintained Category 4 intensity on 03 July — and 1-minute GOES-17 Visible and Infrared GOES-17 images (above) provided a better view of mesovortices within the eye.

Categories: DMSP, GOES-17, Metop, Microwave, Satellite winds, Tropical cyclones