Reflection of sunlight off the Topaz Solar Farms in southern California
A multi-panel display of 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) ABI images (above) showed either a reflectance signature or a thermal signature of sunlight reflecting off the Topaz Solar Farms on 18 June 2026. A signature was evident in 13 of the 16 ABI spectral bands (no signature was evident in water vapor bands 08/09/10) — and due to a relatively dry atmosphere, there was even a subtle signature in the near-infrared “Cirrus” band 04 (1838 UTC images).
A closer view of the band 07 Shortwave Infrared imagery (below) displayed the large thermal signature — in fact, the infrared brightness temperature peaked at 137.88 C (which is the saturation temperature of GOES-18 band 07 detectors) from 1833 UTC to 1842 UTC.
A closer view of band 02 Red Visible imagery (below) revealed the appearance of vertical striping that emanated northward and southward from the Topaz solar farms. These image artifacts were likely related to saturated ABI detector column amplifiers, due to an excess charge induced by intense sunlight reflection off the large solar panel arrays.
A larger-scale view of the Visible image at 1837 UTC (below) showed that these striping artifacts extended a considerable distance from the Topaz site.
