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Laura becomes a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed Laura during the the 12-hour period after it intensified from a Tropical Storm to a Hurricane in the southern Gulf of Mexico at 1215 UTC on 25 August 2020. Numerous convective overshooting tops were observed, some exhibiting cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures as cold as -87ºC.

A comparison of NOAA-20 MiRS Microwave (88 GHz), GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images at 1851 UTC (below) revealed a curved convective band wrapping around the eye of Laura.

NOAA-20 MIRS Microwave (88 GHz), GOES16

NOAA-20 MiRS Microwave (88 GHz), GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images at 1851 UTC [click to enlarge]

In a toggle between Infrared Window images from Suomi NPP (11.45 µm) and GOES-16 (10.35 µm) at 1943 UTC (below), the coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature was -91.9ºC in the Suomi NPP image (compared to -87.0ºC on the GOES-16 image). The northwestward parallax displacement associated with GOES-16 imagery over the southern Gulf of Mexico was also apparent.

Infrared Window images from Suomi NPP (11.45 µm) and GOES-16 (10.35 µm) images at 1943 UTC [click to enlarge]

Infrared Window images from Suomi NPP (11.45 µm) and GOES-16 (10.35 µm) at 1943 UTC [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, Microwave, NOAA-20, Suomi NPP, Tropical cyclones, VIIRS