The Himawari-8 AHI instrument has 3 water vapor bands, centered at 6.2 µm, 6.9 µm, and 7.3 µm. Images of these 3 water vapor bands (above; also available as a large 126 Mbyte animated GIF) showed the intensification of a mid-latitude cyclone as it moved east of Japan during the 17-19... Read More

There were numerous pilot reports of Moderate to Severe turbulence (symbols) over much of the Midwest on 11 March 2016, as shown plotted on 4-km resolution GOES-13 (GOES-East) Water Vapor (6.5 µm) images (above). A packet of transverse banding cloud features developed over eastern Kansas after about 1515 UTC, and moved northeastward... Read More

A strong winter storm produced a swath of winter weather from Arkansas through lower Michigan on 23-24 February. GOES-14 SRSO-R Imagery was centered on the occluded storm on 24 February, and the water vapor animation, above (available here as an animated gif image), shows strong flow north-northwest from the Mid-Atlantic states into the Upper Midwest,... Read More

Extensive wildfires (well-forecast by the Storm Prediction Center) occurred over the southern Plains on Thursday 18 February 2016, while GOES-14 was operating in SRSO-R mode. A comparison of 1-minute GOES-14 Visible (0.63 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above; also available as a large 112 Mbyte animated GIF) showed the broad areal coverage of smoke plumes and fire... Read More