University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center

CIMSS Satellite Blog

Cyclone Eunice moves through Europe

February 18th, 2022 | aross

A storm named Eunice has developed over the British Isles and is causing severe winds, up to 122 mph observed at the surface. The storm is associated with a very active jet stream in the North Atlantic. Eunice follows another storm, Dudley, that hit England, Ireland, and Scotland on Wednesday 2/16/22 and brought heavy winds and flooding.

Europe’s Meteosat-11 observes storm Eunice over the UK and western Europe at Bands 1 and 9 from 2/15/22 23:00UTC to 2/18/22 19:00UTC. Click here to see these same satellite products in real-time from RealEarth.

#SATELLITE SPOTLIGHT: Europe's #Meteosat11 has been tracking a powerful system moving across the British Isles today. One of the worst storms to hit the U.K. in a generation, #StormEunice is producing a large storm surge, winds up to 100 mph, and widespread power outages. pic.twitter.com/tKZw9QHCZF
— NOAA Satellites – Public Affairs (@NOAASatellitePA) February 18, 2022

#StormEunice as it approached Ireland overnight.https://t.co/Xg3aMJlyuS pic.twitter.com/P3dwoBffCD
— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) February 18, 2022

ECMWF produced a short write-up on this storm, and two others that week (link).

Posted in Meteosat, RealEarth, Winter weather | Comments Off on Cyclone Eunice moves through Europe

Cyclone Shaheen makes landfall in Oman

October 3rd, 2021 | Scott Bachmeier

US Space Force EWS-G1 Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

US Space Force EWS-G1 (formerly GOES-13) Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images (above) showed
Hurricane Shaheen weakening to a Tropical Storm shortly after it made a rare landfall along the coast of Oman on 03 October 2021. The storm exhibited an eye at times as it was a Category 1 Hurricane over the Gulf of Oman. This was likely the first tropical cyclone to make landfall along that coastal portion of Oman since 1890 (Wikipedia).

Meteosat-8 Infrared images, with contours of deep-layer wind shear from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) indicated that the storm was moving through an environment of low shear.

Meteosat-8 Infrared images, with contours of deep-layer wind shear [click to enlarge]

Suomi-NPP VIIRS True Color RGB and infrared Window (11.45 µm) images viewed using RealEarth (below) showed the Category 1 Hurricane at 0927 UTC.

Suomi-NPP VIIRS True Color RGB and infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 0927 UTC [click to enlarge]

Posted in EWS-G1, Meteosat, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, Tropical cyclones, VIIRS | Comments Off on Cyclone Shaheen makes landfall in Oman

Local Noon imagery near the Equinox

September 19th, 2021 | Scott Lindstrom

Multi-satellite True-Color imagery at local noon, 19 September 2021 (Click to enlarge)

SSEC/CIMSS scientists (notably Rick Kohrs) create daily imagery that blends vertical strips of true-color imagery at local Noon, starting near the dateline and proceeding westward. A year-long animation of this product is available here, and was discussed on this blog previously here (and here). Recent images are available at this website — the imagery there, like that above, has a size of 1440×720 pixels. Full-size imagery (9200×4600 pixels) are available for purchase at the website.

The image above, from shortly before the (Northern Hemisphere) Autumnal Equinox shows illumination at both Poles. Careful inspection of the imagery does reveal difference between imagery created from Himawari-8 Imagery over eastern Asia and imagery created from Meteosat imagery over central Asia. There is a more subtle difference between Meteosat imagery and GOES-16 imagery, chiefly because that seam is over the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Such differences arise from spectral differences between the satellites.

This web page with web apps allows anyone to investigate how solar energy varies with the season.

Posted in GOES-16, GOES-17, Himawari-8, Meteosat, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images | Comments Off on Local Noon imagery near the Equinox

Eruption of Mount Etna

March 24th, 2021 | Scott Bachmeier

Meteosat-11 Ash Height images [click to play animation | MP4]

EUMETSAT Meteosat-11 Ash Height retrievals from the NOAA/CIMSS Volcanic Cloud Monitoring site (above) showed that an eruption of Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy on 24 March 2021 produced an ash cloud which rose to heights of 7-8 km (darker shade of green).

The corresponding Meteosat-11 Ash Loading images are shown below — ash loading appeared to be light to moderate within much of the volcanic cloud.

Meteosat-11 Ash Loading images [click to play animation | MP4]

Ash Loading values retrieved using Suomi NPP VIIRS data at at 1200 UTC (below) were notably higher than those from Meteosat-11, given the higher spatial resolution and additional spectral band data available from the VIIRS instrument.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Ash Loading at 1200 UTC [click to enlarge]

A toggle between VIIRS True Color RGB images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP as viewed using RealEarth (below) revealed hues of tan to light brown within the volcanic plume, further supporting the presence of an elevated ash content.