The Imager on GOES-13 captured approximately 2,307,267 images (counting each of the 5 spectral bands as an image), with an additional (at least) 264,480 images as EWS-G1 — for a total of 2,571,747 images! In addition, the GOES-13 Sounder captured 3,054,820 images (counting each of the 19 spectral bands as an image).

GOES-N and GOES-13

After years of planning, GOES-N was launched in the Spring of 2006. The spacecraft was built by Boeing, while the Imager and Sounder were both built by (then) ITT Industries, Inc., as part of a series (GOES-N/O/P). After reaching the geostationary orbit, it was renamed GOES-13 and there was a post-launch test (PLT) period to verify its operational readiness (which produced a NOAA Technical Report: Hillger and Schmit). More on the GOES-13 PLT, including results from both the Imager and Sounder, is available here. A University of Wisconsin-Madison/SSEC story (“Changing the GOES line-up“) from 2006.

“The latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), GOES-N, was launched on 24 May 2006, and reached geostationary orbit at 89.5°W on 4 June 2006 to become GOES-13. It was later moved to 105ºW for the Science Test and eventual storage. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) conducted a 3-week GOES-13 Science Test that began 7 December 2006 and ended officially on 28 December 2006. The Science Test schedule was integrated within the NESDIS/National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) GOES- 13 Post-Launch Test (PLT) schedule. GOES-13 has instruments similar to those on GOES-8/12,but is on a different spacecraft bus. The new bus allows improvements both to navigation and registration, as well as the radiometrics. By supplying data through the eclipse periods, the GOES-N/O/P system addresses one of the major limitations which are eclipse and related outages. This is possible due to larger spacecraft batteries. Outages due to Keep Out Zones (KOZ) will be minimized.“

FROM THE 2008 NOAA Report

After the PLT checkout and handover from NASA to NOAA, GOES-13 was placed in on-orbit storage until it was put into operational use beginning in April of 2010. In 2012, there was an outage, while GOES-14 provided support. In 2013, the spacecraft was hit with a micrometeor, but the spacecraft was reactivated after spending two and a half weeks in safe mode. GOES-13 was featured in hundreds of entries on the CIMSS Satellite Blog covering many of the Earth-looking uses, including severe weather, fires, fog, smoke, etc. It ended operational service for NOAA in January of 2018, and was an in-orbit backup satellite until being transferred to the U.S. Space Force in 2019.

GOES-13 Became EWS-G1

EWS-G1 (Electro-optical Infrared Weather System Geostationary) is a U.S. Space Force mission. The imager is running a routine scan schedule, as can be seen on the UW/SSEC geo-browser. This schedule includes scans of the Indian Ocean, the extended Indian Ocean and Full Disks. Previously only Full Disk images had been obtained every 30 minutes (see this EWS-G1 quick-guide). EWS-G1 imagery has been available via the UW/SSEC since late 2020. While operating over the Indian Ocean, the Imager monitored many phenomena, including many typhoons. Beginning in June of 2023, EWS-G1 has employed the “XGOHI” remapping of data before GVAR generation, to handle larger satellite inclination angles, increasing the time of providing quality imagery. This capability was first employed on GOES-10 (and then GOES-12) when their images provided special coverage of the Southern Hemisphere for a combined almost 7 years.

GOES-15 has become EWS-G2

It was recently announced by the Secretary of the Air Force that GOES-15 has become EWS-G2: “The U.S. Space Force accepted the transfer of a second geostationary weather satellite from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to extend persistent weather coverage of the Indian Ocean region until the 2030 timeframe. … As it currently does with EWS-G1, NOAA will operate EWS-G2 on behalf of the Space Force from the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Maryland, and Wallops Command and Data Acquisition Station in Wallops Island, Virginia.”

The above loop is available as an mp4 and an animated gif.

EWS-G2 has the same spectral coverage as the EWS-G1. The EWS-G2 was formerly NOAA’s GOES-15, which was launched in March 2010 and the first GOES-15 images were sent on April 6, 2010 (see this GOES-15 technical report, which was written soon after launch). EWS-G2 is now routinely sending data.

Last Image and “Graveyard” Orbit

The above image was intentionally offset to allow for special end of satellite life data collection for calibration purposes of the other GOES-N/O/P series Imagers.

EWS-G1 will soon be placed in a “super synchronous” (or “graveyard“) higher orbit – hence an end of an era. Thanks to GOES-13/EWS-G1 for much valuable data over the years.

More

The posted near realtime imagery are free for public use (please credit UW-Madison/SSEC) and users can contact UW/SSEC Satellite Data Services for information on data access / subscription. Most of the above images were made using the McIDAS-X software. NOAA/NESDIS/STAR supplies some calibration support of these imagers.

History has been repeated, as GOES-1, after it’s operational use, was moved in the late 1970s to collect imagery over the Indian Ocean — and this has happened once again with GOES-13 and GOES-15 becoming EWS-G1 and EWS-G2.

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Overlapping 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sectors provided 30-second interval GOES-16 (GOES-East) Day Land Cloud Fire RGB images (above) that included an overlay of Fire Power and Fire Mask derived products (2 components of the GOES Fire Detection and Characterization Algorithm FDCA) — which showed the thermal signature and dark black smoke plume associated with a fire at the Sound Resource Solutions chemical plant in Shepherd, Texas on 08 November 2023. The smoke plume was thick enough to significantly reduce incoming solar radiation reaching the surface, which inhibited the subsequent development of boundary layer cumulus clouds (resulting in a pronounced gap in the cumulus field downwind of the fire and smoke plume source after about 1700 UTC).

The FDCA first identified a Processed Fire at 1420 UTC — and the peak Fire Power value of 171.65 MW occurred 6 minutes later (above). The maximum Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) brightness temperature of 55.54ºC also occurred at 1426 UTC (below).

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GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed a narrow (2-4 miles in width) plume of smoke+fog — the smoke was from a marsh fire burning near New Orleans East — that was moving to the northwest across Lake Pontchartrain after sunrise on 07 November 2023. This dense smoke+fog plume rapidly reduced visibility along a portion of Interstate 10, resulting in several accidents (media report).

A plot of rawinsonde data from New Orleans at 1200 UTC (below) indicated that there was a pronounced and very shallow temperature inversion just above the surface, which was trapping the dense wildfire smoke+fog near the surface and preventing its vertical dispersion (until a few hours after sunrise, when boundary layer mixing began to increase).

===== 08 Nov Update =====

On the following day, GOES-16 Nighttime Microphysics RGB and daytime Visible images (above) showed another smoke+fog plume, which persisted long enough after sunrise to impact traffic along the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. Prior to sunrise, Nighttime Microphysics RGB imagery revealed the plume thickening near New Orleans East and beginning to move NW across the lake — and around 1100 UTC, I-10 and I-510 in that vicinity were proactively closed for several hours until visibility improved.

Unlike the previous day — when a veil of high clouds frequently prevented a view of low clouds/fog — a more distinct fog signature was seen in GOES-16 Night Fog Difference images (below).

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Storm Reports for the first two weeks of November 2023 show that the all but one of the reports have occurred over lower Michigan, where large hail (1 to 1.5 inches in diameter) occurred shortly after sunrise on 6 November in Newaygo County (1423 UTC), Montcalm County (1440, 1443 UTC) and Kent County (1448 UTC). What satellite imagery could be used to monitor this out-of-season development? The airmass RGB animation, above, from 0801 – 1501 UTC, shows the orangish shading typical of an airmass with high potential vorticity impinging on western Lower Michigan. Is that orange region really a region where Potential Vorticity is elevated? The image below compares the 1200 UTC (6-h GFS forecast) of pressure on the 2 PVU (taken from this source) to the 1201 UTC Airmass RGB. Strong convection develops over Lake Michigan after 1200 UTC and moves into southwestern lower Michigan where the severe weather occurred around 1400 and 1500 UTC.

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GOES-R provides Derived Stability Indices as one of its Level 2 Products. The clear-sky stability products include the Total Totals Index and the animation below shows the values along with the GOES-16 Clean Window infrared imagery. Values in excess of 45 occasionally appear in clear sky pixels over western lower Michigan as the stronger convection develops. Values are even larger to the west/southwest over Wisconsin where dynamic forcing is presumably less strong (given that convection did not develop there; here is a 6-h forecast of pressure on the 330 K surface along with cyclonic vorticity at 850 mb; note the strongest dynamics at 12 UTC are over northeast WI).

GOES-16 low-level water vapor imagery, below, shows the characteristic red signature sometimes associated with Elevated Mixed Layers (EMLs, features that are conducive to convection) moving towards lower Michigan. The weighting function from 45 N, 95W computed from 1200 UTC 6 November 2023 GFS data (here, taken from this source), shows a peak contribution from near 500 mb. The 1200 UTC Chanhassen Minnesota soundings (here, from this source), shows near dry-adiabatic conditions at 500 mb, i.e, a possible EML; if convection reaches that level, one might expect vigorous ascent.

GOES-16 Visible imagery, below, colored by the L2 cloud height product, shows both the convective texture of the clouds over Newaygo, Montcalm and Kent counties, and the relatively high heights of those clouds.

GOES-16 Cloud Top Heights, below, from 1401-1456 UTC, show the highest clouds tracking across southern Newaygo county and northern Kent and Montcalm counties from 1426 – 1451 UTC.

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The visible imagery colored with the cloud-top height mimics what happens with the Sandwich RGB, shown below. For this RGBs, the default scaling from 0-255 was changed to 0-150 for this early morning/low light event. The cold cloud tops of the strongest convection are apparent, tracking in the same region of Newaygo/Montcalm/Kent counties between 1400 and 1500 UTC, when the severe weather was occurring.

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A GOES-16 Mesoscale Domain Sector provided 1-minute imagery over the area — Visible and Infrared images that included time-matched (+/- 3 minutes) plots of SPC Storm Reports (in Newaygo/Montcalm/Kent counties) are shown below. In the vicinity of the hail reports, overshooting tops were evident in the Visible images and cloud-top 10.3 µm infrared  brightness temperatures were as cold as -60ºC (darker red enhancement).

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Thanks to TJ Turnage, Science and Operations Officer (SOO) at the Grand Rapids MI forecast office, for alerting us to this event.

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