As northeast Santa Ana winds began to increase before sunrise on 30 October 2019, 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed the sudden onset of a thermal anomaly (cluster of  hot 3.9 µm pixels) — associated with the Easy Fire northwest of Los Angeles — which occurred at... Read More

GOES-16 and GOES-17 satellite imagery can be remapped and combined to create stereoscopic imagery. To achieve the 3-dimensional effect, cross your eyes until three scenes are visible, and focus on the middle image.  You can also achieve this by placing a finger halfway between your eyes and the screen, and... Read More

Gridded NUCAPS fields (Here’s a NASA SpoRT VLab page on the product) are now available in AWIPS, effective with AWIPS Build 19.3.1. The imagery above includes a swath of NUCAPS points (called up via ‘NUCAPS Sounding Availability’) under the Satellite Tab, and the ‘S-NPP and NOAA-20’ choice there (even though, at present,... Read More

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed a wind-driven increase in areal coverage and smoke production from the Kincade Fire in Northern California on 27 October 2019. The fire made a rapid southwestward run of approximately 10 miles toward Highway 101 (plotted in red), as Diablo Winds... Read More