Imagery from CSPP Geosphere (direct link), above, shows the condensation trail produced by the launch of the SpaceX rocket. Only routine CONUS 5-minute scanning was available to view the launch; very active weather over the southern Plains caused the GOES-16 mesoscale sectors to be positioned north and west of Florida. The 2303 UTC launch (news link), shortly before... Read More
In a sequence of daytime True Color RGB + Nighttime Microphysics RGB images from GOES-16 (GOES-East) and GOES-18 (GOES-West) (above), signatures of the SpaceX Starship Test Flight 8 launch were seen — the Super Heavy Stage 1 rocket booster condensation cloud cast a long shadow across the water before sunset,... Read More
A display of all 16 ABI spectral bands from GOES-16 (GOES-East) showed that a hot thermal signature of the SpaceX Starship Falcon Heavy rocket booster was apparent in Near-Infrared & Infrared bands 04-16 at 2101 UTC during its Test Flight 6 on 19th November 2024. In addition, the rocket exhaust condensation cloud was... Read More
There are many examples of NOAA‘s GOES ABI detecting the spectral signatures of large rockets. These include GOES-S, GOES-T, GOES-U, GOES-U boosters, Starliner, Falcon 9, Ariane, Himawari-9, Antares, etc. If the rocket is large enough, there is often a signal in each of the 16 ABI bands. Of course the timing of the ABI scan... Read More
