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Satellite signatures of the SpaceX / Axiom Mission 3 rocket launch

By Scott Bachmeier •

30-second GOES-16 images from all 16 ABI spectral bands, in addition to a Rocket Plume RGB; KXMR denotes the Cape Canaveral rawinsonde 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 in addition to a Rocket Plume RGB (above), which displayed the northeast-moving warm thermal signature of a SpaceX Falcon 9 stage 1 rocket booster as the Ax-3 Mission was launched from NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2149 UTC (4:49 PM EST) on 18 January 2024. Due to the presence of widespread lower-tropospheric and upper-tropospheric clouds off the coast — note the moist layers seen in a plot of morning Cape Canaveral rawinsonde data (the high-altitude clouds were due to a subtropical jet stream over the Southeast US) — the rocket’s thermal signature was apparent in a more limited subset of Near-Infrared (ABI spectral bands 04/05/06) and Infrared (ABI spectral bands 07/08/09/10) images compared to many previous rocket launches.

One noteworthy feature seen in GOES-16 Water Vapor and Rocket Plume RGB imagery was the subtle trail of hot water vapor in the wake of the departing Falcon 9 stage 1 rocket booster, which could be seen drifting to the north-northwest in 30-second images from 2152-2153 UTC (below).

30-second GOES-16 Rocket Plume RGB, Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images, from 2152-2153 UTC [click to enlarge]

A comparison of GOES-16 Rocket Plume RGB, Upper-level Water Vapor, Mid-level Water Vapor and Shortwave Infrared images at 21:55:25 UTC (below) revealed a warm thermal signature of the Falcon 9 stage 1 entry burn — which slowed the rocket’s rate of descent as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere — to prepare it for a landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

GOES-16 Rocket Plume RGB, Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm), Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images at 21:55:25 UTC [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 Visible images (below) showed the brighter white Falcon 9 rocket condensation cloud as it emerged from the low-level cloudiness, and was subsequently sheared eastward by westerly winds of 40-70 kts.

30-second GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

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