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Satellite signatures of the NASA/SpaceX Crew-7 launch

By Scott Bachmeier •

Stepped sequence of GOES-16 images from all 16 ABI spectral bands, plus a Rocket Plume RGB; KXMR denotes the location of the Cape Kennedy rawinsonde launch site [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Overlapping 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sectors provided GOES-16 (GOES-East) images at 30-second intervals from all 16 of the ABI spectral bands (above), which displayed the northeast-moving bright reflectance and/or the warm thermal signature of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster as the Crew-7 Mission was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 0727 UTC (3:27 AM EST) on 26 August 2023. The low-altitude rocket launch condensation cloud was also evident in imagery from the Infrared bands (07-16), located just offshore from the launch site. One or both of these rocket launch signatures were unambiguously detected by 15 of 16 of the ABI spectral bands (02-16), as well as Rocket Plume RGB images. A notable feature was the signature of the Stage 1 “Boostback Burn” — where the expansion/cooling of the rocket engine’s gas plume was apparent in the Band 08 image at 0730 UTC.  Note: the default enhancements of the Visible bands (01 and 02) and Near-Infrared bands (03-06) were modified, to help better visualize the nighttime rocket signature.

A 16-panel display of GOES-16 ABI spectral bands at 0728 UTC (below) showed the rocket signature in bands 02-16 at that time.

16-panel display of GOES-16 ABI spectral bands at 0728 UTC [click to enlarge]

In fact, a very subtle reflectance signature was also apparent in ABI spectral band 01 immediately after launch at 0727 UTC — it was partially masked by the map overlay, which was removed for the 0726-0727 UTC comparison seen below.

16-panel display of GOES-16 ABI spectral bands at 0726 and 0727 UTC [click to enlarge]

A zoomed-in view using a stepped sequence of GOES-16 images from 16 ABI spectral bands 03, 05, 06 and 07 (below) showed the brighter/warmer signature of the Falcon 9 rocket Stage 1 Landing Burn at 0734 UTC, as it successfully returned to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Stepped sequence of GOES-16 images from 16 ABI spectral bands 03, 05, 06 and 07, 0733-0735 UTC [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

A GOES-18 (GOES-West) Mesoscale Domain Sector was also positioned over the region, providing 1-minute images from a more oblique perspective (below).

Stepped sequence of GOES-18 images from all 16 ABI spectral bands [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

A 16-panel display of GOES-18 ABI spectral bands at 0728 UTC (below) showed that rocket signature was evident in bands 02-16 (as was the case with GOES-16).

16-panel display of GOES-18 ABI spectral bands at 0728 UTC [click to enlarge]

Thanks to Todd Beltracci, The Aerospace Corporation, for his insightful discussion on several aspects of this imagery.

Categories: GOES-16, GOES-18, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Rocket signatures