GOES-17 — and GOES-18, beginning at 1801 UTC on 04 January (after GOES-18 became the operational GOES-West satellite) — Air Mass RGB images (above) showed a rapidly-intensifying Hurricane Force low pressure system (surface analyses) over the East Pacific Ocean as it approached the US West Coast during the 03 January – 04 January 2023 period... Read More

GOES-18 became the operational GOES-West satellite at 1800 UTC on 4 January. The toggle above shows the GOES-West (labeled as GOES-17, but the 1806 UTC image is using GOES-18 satellite information) IFR Probability Fields before/after the changeover. The IFR Probability field gives more useful information about surface visibility/ceiling restrictions than (for example) visible imagery (shown here) that shows widespread cloudiness at the... Read More