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Satellite signatures of a SpaceX rocket launch

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm), Split Water Vapor BTD (6.2 – 7.3 µm) and Day Convection RGB images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]  

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm), Split Water Vapor BTD (6.2 – 7.3 µm) and Day Convection RGB images (above) showed that the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (for the Transporter-4 Mission) on 01 April 2022 created a short-lived shock wave that propagated northward through the clouds just off the Florida coast.

A sequence of GOES-16 images from ABI Infrared spectral bands 07-16 at 16:25:55 UTC (below) displayed the Falcon 9 rocket booster’s thermal signature at that time (when the rocket was well above the clouds, at an altitude around 30 km).

GOES-16 images from ABI Bands 07-16 at 1626 UTC [click to enlarge]

A plot of rawinsonde data (source) from Cocoa Beach, Florida (below) indicated that the entire tropospheric column was nearly saturated, supporting the presence of dense layered cloudiness. There was an isothermal 600-650 hPa layer, which could have enhanced horizontal ducting of these shock waves (although it’s curious as to why the direction of wave propagation was primarily northward in the GOES-16 imagery).

Plot of rawinsonde data from Cocoa Beach, Florida [click to enlarge]

Kudos to Todd Beltracchi (The Aerospace Corporation) for bringing this interesting rocket signature to our attention!

Categories: GOES-16, Rocket signatures