Moderate to extreme drought conditions across much of North Dakota during the Spring and Summer of 2008 had caused the water levels at Long Lake (a small  alkaline lake located east-southeast  of Bismarck) to become very low — as a result, bright white “salt flats” began to grow in size, becoming large enough to be... Read More

The Kasatochi Volcano (located in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska) experienced a series of eruptions on 07-08 August 2008. A comparison of visible channel images from the MTSAT-1R and GOES-11 satellites (above) shows the initial sequence of volcanic plumes from 2 very... Read More

There are a number of satellite signatures that denote areas of potential turbulence, and AWIPS images of the GOES-12 10.7 µm IR channel on 27 July 2008 (above) displayed two of the more common indicators: rapidly developing convection, and transverse banding. A decaying mesoscale convective system was moving southeastward across... Read More

A suspicious area of “haziness” began to appear over the Pacific Northwest region (specifically, Washington state and adjacent parts of northern Oregon and southern British Columbia) on the late afternoon and early evening GOES-12 visible images (above) on 06 July 2008. A MODIS true color image from the SSEC MODIS Today site (below) also... Read More