Fog/stratus along the New England coast

July 24th, 2018 |

GOES-16 Total Precipitable Water product [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Total Precipitable Water product [click to play animation | MP4]

The GOES-16 (GOES-East) Total Precipitable Water product (above) showed a northerly/northwesterly flow of tropical moisture toward New England during the day on 24 July 2018, with TPW values in the 1.0 to 1.6 inch range moving toward the region. As this moist air moved over relatively cool water — as indicated by Aqua MODIS Sea Surface Temperature values generally in the 60s F on the previous day (below) — areas of marine boundary layer fog/stratus developed.

Aqua MODIS Sea Surface Temperature product from 23 July [click to enlarge]

Aqua MODIS Sea Surface Temperature product from 23 July [click to enlarge]

1-minue Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (below) revealed interesting patterns in the resulting marine layer fog/stratus — for example, bow shock waves along the eastern edges of Nantucket Island and Cape Cod, and narrow clear swaths to the lee of some of the smaller islands off the coast of Maine.

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play MP4 animation]

Posted in Aqua, GOES-16, Marine weather, MODIS | No Comments »

Wildfires in Greece

July 24th, 2018 |

Suomi NPP VIIRS Shortwave Infrared (3.75 µm), Near-Infrared (1.61 and 2.25 µm) and Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Suomi NPP VIIRS Shortwave Infrared (3.75 µm), Near-Infrared (1.61 and 2.25 µm) and Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Suomi NPP VIIRS Shortwave Infrared (3.75 µm), Near-Infrared (1.61 and 2.25 µm) and Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) images (above) showed thermal signatures and the bright glow of wildfires in the Athens, Greece area at 0005 UTC or 3:05 am local time on 24 July 2018. The 2 largest fires were burning in the vicinity of Kineta and Mati.

Similar images from an overpass of the NOAA-20 satellite 50 minutes later are shown below.

NOAA-20 Shortwave Infrared (3.75 µm), Near-Infrared (1.61 and 2.25 µm) and Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) images [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 Shortwave Infrared (3.75 µm), Near-Infrared (1.61 and 2.25 µm) and Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Over 70 deaths have resulted from these fast-moving wildfires, which were driven by strong winds (below).

Time series of surface observations at Athens, Greece [click to enlarge]

Time series of surface observations at Athens, Greece [click to enlarge]

VIIRS images courtesy of William Straka, CIMSS.

Posted in Fire detection, NOAA-20, Suomi NPP, VIIRS | No Comments »