‘Orphan anvils’ typically will develop before and just as a cap that prevents convective development breaks down. They can therefore be a precursor to strong thunderstorm development. The animation above shows an orphan anvil just before strong convection (Storm Reports) develops over south-central Nebraska. The anvil development is obvious in the... Read More

A comparison of AWIPS images of Suomi NPP VIIRS 0.7 µm Day/Night Band and 11.45 µm IR channel data (above) showed a large mesoscale convective system in southwestern Arizona at 08:40 UTC or 2:40 am local time on 20 July 2013. With ample... Read More

At 15:46 UTC on 06 December 2011, GOES-15 replaced GOES-11 as the operational GOES-West satellite. GOES-11 (launched in 2000, and operational since 2006) was one of the older GOES-I/J/K/L/M series of satellites (GOES-8/9/10/11/12), while GOES-15 (launched in 2010; Read More

As of 18:34 UTC on 14 April 2010, GOES-13 (launched May 2006, with a Post Launch Test in December 2006) replaced GOES-12 (launched July 2001) as the operational GOES-East satellite  — for more information, see the NOAA NESDIS Satellite Services Division. A sequence of AWIPS images (above) shows the last three GOES-12... Read More