GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with plots of hourly surface reports [click to play animated GIF | MP4]
30-second GOES-17 images over Utah and Colorado
June 23rd, 2022 | Scott BachmeierAlaskan wildfire smoke
June 22nd, 2022 | Scott Bachmeier
GOES-18 True Color RGB images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]
GOES-18 images in this blog post are preliminary and non-operational
GOES-18 True Color RGB images created using Geo2Grid (above) showed smoke from Alaskan wildfires that had been transported southward over Kodiak Island and the northern Gulf of Alaska. Most of this smoke remained aloft — note that although Kodiak began reporting smoke late in the day, the surface visibility remained at 10 miles (below).
Plot of surface report data from Kodiak, Alaska [click to enlarge]
Composite of VIIRS True Color imagery, with fire thermal signatures shown in red [click to enlarge]
Cross-sections using gridded NUCAPS data in AWIPS
June 21st, 2022 | Scott Lindstrom
Gridded NUCAPS data, available from NOAA-20 data within AWIPS, can be used to construct cross-sections in AWIPS. The image above includes an editable baseline J-J’ (one of 10 different lines that can be used for data in AWIPS) from Minnesota into Indiana, roughly perpendicular to a line of broken cumulus over Wisconsin and Iowa.
The cross section of equivalent potential temperature, above, shows very warm temperatures over the southern portions of the cross section, with theta-e values around 350 K. Potential Instability, i.e., theta-e values decreasing with height, is widespread along the cross-section. The broken cloud field in the VIIRS imagery on top eventually did initiate convection, as shown in this radar capture from 0012 UTC on 22 June.
How do you create the cross-sections in AWIPS? Use the Volume Browser, as shown in the screen capture below. Select ‘Cross Section’ (vs. ‘Plan view’, for example) from the choices in the Volume Browser right next to ‘File’, ‘Edit’ and ‘Tools’, then choose ‘GriddedNUCAPS’ under ‘Sources’, and choose the correct Plane — as one of the Specified Lines you have previously moved in AWIPS; then choose the variable (possibilities are shown in the image; I chose Equiv Pot Temp).
Imagery in this blog was created using a cloud instance of AWIPS from the TOWR-S group within NOAA/NWS. Thank you!
VIIRS composite flood products over Bangladesh and India
June 21st, 2022 | arossThe five-day composite of the VIIRS flood product is just one flood product that can be viewed in RealEarth. VIIRS is an instrument aboard SNPP and NOAA-20, which are low earth orbiting satellites. This means that while only two daytime observations may be retrieved per day over a given region, the spatial resolution of 375-m is quite highly resolved. VIIRS flood composites, such as the five-day composite, provide the “maximal flood extent” during flood events. More information about VIIRS and other satellite flood products can be found here.
In areas of Bangladesh and northwest India, persistent rains have caused recent heavy flooding. Millions of people have already been displaced and the flooding is forecast to continue. The VIIRS five-day flood product composite over a six-day time period can be seen below, with the 7-day CMORPH2 satellite-derived precipitation accumulation product. Comparing the images, the spatial placement of flooding with accumulated precipitation coincides well.
