The 2015 December solstice — Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and Summer in the Southern Hemisphere — occurred at 0448 UTC on 22nd day of the month. Several hours prior to the solstice, the daylight/darkness “terminator” (tilted at 23.5º due to the inclination of the Earth’s axis) could be seen... Read More

On 15 December 2015 NOAA/NESDIS conducted a test of the new GOES-15 (GOES-West) Rapid Scan Operations (RSO) sector for coverage of the American Samoa region (SSD message). GOES-15 Visible (0.63 µm, 1-km resolution) images during the test period between 1711 and 1957 UTC are shown above, with plots of surface observations for... Read More

GOES-13 (above) and GOES-15 (below) both captured the propagation of gravity waves that displayed Bore-like attributes along an inversion with a cold front over central Texas. (Click here for an animation of GOES-13 and GOES-15 side-by-side that includes observed surface winds).There was a temperature drop across the front, and modest wind... Read More

Japanese Meteorological Agency Himawari-8 Water Vapor (6.9 µm, 2-km resolution) images (above) showed the rapid intensification of a hurricane-force extratropical cyclone over the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea during the 12 December – 13 December 2015 period. The 6.9 µm is one of 3 water vapor spectral bands on the Himawari... Read More