Ice formation in southern Lake Michigan

By Scott Bachmeier • 7 February 2021

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

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) revealed an increasing amount of ice coverage within the nearshore waters of southern Lake Michigan on 07 February 2021 — this was due to a recent influx of arctic air across the Upper Midwest and western Great Lakes.

A sequence of VIIRS True Color RGB and False Color RGB images from Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20 (below) provided 375-meter resolution views of the lake ice.

VIIRS True Color RGB and False Color RGB images [click to enlarge]

The MIRS Sea Ice Concentration product derived from Suomi-NPP ATMS data (below) depicted maximum values of 60-63% (lighter green), which was fairly consistent with the Ice Concentration analysis from GLERL.

MIRS Sea Ice Concentration product derived from Suomi-NPP ATMS data [click to enlarge]

The Suomi-NPP VIIRS Sea Surface Temperature product (below) revealed values of 34-39ºF along the leading edge of widespread lake effect cloud bands that were producing snowfall in Lower Michigan.

Suomi-NPP VIIRS Sa Surface Temperature product [click to enlarge]

Suomi-NPP VIIRS Sea Surface Temperature product [click to enlarge]

A 250-meter resolution Aqua MODIS True Color RGB image of the ice at 1917 UTC (from the MODIS Today site) is shown below.

Aqua MODIS True Color RGB image [click to enlarge]

Finally, an overpass of Landsat-8 offered a 30-meter resolution view of a portion of the lake ice near Chicago, as visualized using RealEarth (below).

Landsat-8 False Color RGB image [click to enlarge]

Categories: Aqua, GOES-16, Landsat, Microwave, MIRS, NOAA-20, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, VIIRS, Winter weather

CIMSS Satellite Blog

CIMSS Satellite Blog

Ice formation in southern Lake Michigan