GOES-18 (GOES-West) Ash RGB images (above) showed the northeastward drift of volcanic clouds produced by an eruption of Mount Shishaldin that began just before 1300 UTC on 04 August 2023 (a Mesoscale Domain Sector was positioned over that region at 1603 UTC, providing 1-minute imagery after that time). Those northeast-moving volcanic clouds contained moderate concentrations of ash (denoted... Read More

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Day Land Cloud Fire RGB, Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) and Cloud Top Temperature derived product images (above) showed that the Spoon Fire in in east-central Arizona produced a pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) cloud late in the day on 27 July 2023. Cloud-top 10.3 µm brightness temperatures reached the -40ºC pyroCb threshold (shades of blue) at 0043 UTC... Read More

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed the development of thunderstorms across much of the eastern portion of Interior Alaska on 24 July 2023. The large satellite viewing angle — which is 73.5 degrees for Fairbanks (station identifier PAFA) — provided an oblique perspective that nicely displayed the vertical buildup... Read More

GOES-18 (GOES-West) SO2 RGB and Ash RGB images (above) showed the northeastward drift of a volcanic cloud produced by an eruption of Mount Shishaldin that began shortly before 0730 UTC on 23 July 2023. The initial (higher-altitude) portion of the volcanic cloud likely contained moderate concentrations of SO2 (denoted by brighter shades of yellow in the SO2 RGB images)... Read More