GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed the widespread coverage of ice across Lake Erie on 31 January 2022. Surface winds were generally light across the region, minimizing wind stress on the pack ice. A careful inspection of the imagery revealed some straight pathways cut through the ice by US... Read More
In addition to its use in detecting wind fields over water (link 1, link 2), SAR data can also be used to detect ice. An example is shown above: similar domains on 20 and 24 January 2022 (from this website; this image on 20 January 2022 and this on one 24 January 2022) are toggled. There is a general increase in Lake Michigan shore... Read More
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) winds in select small domains are routinely available (with good latency, i.e., within 2 or 2-1/2 hours) at this website. Coverage over the Great Lakes typically occurs within an hour of 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC on each day. The image above (direct link) shows derived SAR winds... Read More
From an email came this question: RADARSAT vs ASCAT winds, what are the differences between the two methods?This comparison is not easy to make directly, as the orbits of Metop-B and Metop-C, the two satellites that carry the ASCAT instrument (now that Metop-A, which satellite also carried ASCAT, has been decomissioned), don’t... Read More
