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Transport of ice floes from Green Bay into Lake Michigan

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with GOES-16 Derived Motion Winds plotted in yellow and hourly METAR surface reports plotted in cyan [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images which include plots of GOES-16 Derived Motion Winds within the Suface-900 hPa layer (above) showed the eastward transport of several ice floes from the northern portion of Green Bay into Lake Michigan on 30 January 2023. Surface wind gusts and Derived Motion Wind speeds were generally in the 15-20 knot range during much of the day.

VIIRS True Color RGB and False Color RGB images from NOAA-20 and Suomi-NPP (below) confirmed that these features were ice floes (snow and ice appear as shades of cyan in the False Color RGB images). The VIIRS data were downloaded and processed by the SSEC/CIMSS Direct Broadcast ground station.

VIIRS True Color RGB and False Color RGB images from NOAA-20 and Suomi-NPP [click to enlarge]

The emergence of ice floes into Lake Michigan can also be seen in a comparison of RADARSAT Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) wind data (source) at 1208 UTC and 2332 UTC (below). Ice features are very reflective in SAR wind data, and appear as brighter shades of yellow to red in these 2 images.

RADARSAT SAR wind imagery at 1208 UTC and 2332 UTC [click to enlarge]

Categories: Cryosphere, GOES-16, NOAA-20, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, SAR, Satellite winds, Suomi NPP, VIIRS