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GOES-18 imagery resumes, from its position over the Pacific Ocean

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-18 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

* GOES-18 images shown in this blog post are preliminary and non-operational *

Following its initial Post-Launch Test (PLT) period at 89.5°W longitude, GOES-18 reached a near-operational PLT position over the Pacific Ocean at 136.8°W longitude — and began transmitting images again at 0120 UTC on 07 June 2022. Although the first few images were contaminated with striping, a 24-hour period of Full Disk GOES-18 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images is shown above. A “Earth from Orbit” video (GOES-18 Goes West) was produced (with image contributions from CIRA and CIMSS), as well as this Satellite Liaison Blog post. Two sources of near-realtime GOES-18 imagery include Geostationary Satellite Images and 16-panel displays.

A sequence of GOES-18 daytime CIMSS True Color RGB and nighttime Infrared Window images — created using Geo2Grid — is shown below. A similar animation using daytime Rayleigh-corrected True Color RGB images is available here.

GOES-18 daytime CIMSS True Color RGB and nighttime Infrared Window images (credit: Tm Schmit, NOAA/NESDIS/ASPB) [click to play MP4 animation]

Taking a closer look at the northern Bering Sea region, GOES-18 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (below) revealed a strong southerly surge of thin stratus clouds flowing through the Bering Strait — which impinged upon Saint Lawrence Island, Alaska. Note that numerous ice floes could be seen through the semi-transparent stratus layer. Other patches of drift ice were apparent to the southwest of Saint Lawrence Island, and also near the coastlines of Russia and Alaska. In addition, a hazy plume of wildfire smoke could be seen swirling clockwise off the southwest coast of Alaska.

GOES-18 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

In the southwestern portion of Interior Alaska, 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 Visible and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (below) depicted the smoke plume and thermal signature associated with the ongoing Hog Butte Fire (which was started by lightning on 05 June). Over the fire point source, intermittent pyrocumulus jumps could be seen penetrating the top of the expanding smoke plume.

GOES-18 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, bottom) images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Farther to the south, in a comparison of Visible images from GOES-17 (GOES-West), GOES-18 and GOES-16 (GOES-East) (below) a well-defined eddy circulation was evident off the coast of southern California. The images are displayed in the native projection of each satellite.

“Red” Visible (0.64 µm) from GOES-17 (left), GOES-18 (center) and GOES-16 (right) [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-18 Visible images (below) showed widespread thunderstorms that developed over the High Plains, which then moved eastward.

GOES-18 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (credit: Tim Schmit, NOAA/NESDIS/ASPB) [click to play MP4 animation]

===== 08 June Update =====

GOES-18 Water Vapor images (below) included plots of hourly surface wind barbs and gusts — and displayed a well-defined undular bore associated with a lee-side cold frontal gravity wave that was propagating southward through westward across Texas  and New Mexico on 08 June.

GOES-18 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with plots of hourly surface wind barbs and gusts (knots) [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Categories: Arctic, GOES-16, GOES-17, GOES-18, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images