The 2023 NOAA Satellites Virtual Science Fair (VSF) concluded this month with top projects identified. The VSF involves middle and high school students (G6-12) working with GOES (geostationary) or JPSS (polar-orbiting) satellite data in projects of their own design conveyed via a scientific poster. High school submissions also require a short video where students explain their project, similar to a poster session at a professional conference. By offering authentic STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) engagement to a pre-college audience, this activity serves as a pipeline to society’s scientist of tomorrow and NOAA’s future workforce. Peruse the top projects for a refreshing perspective on student creativity and capabilities:  

Looking back at four projects with perfect scores from 2022

Last year for the first (and only) time, four high school projects earned perfect scores in the GOES Virtual Science Fair. To break the tie, several CIMSS and NOAA researchers ranked the posters and poster presentations. Check out the excellent projects and see how you might rank them, then find out who won via http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/education/goesr/1stPlace2022.html.

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The Himawari-9 Target sector monitored the evolution of Typhoon Mawar from its inception. The animation above (it re-centers occasionally) shows the initial intensification of the system, a brief but notable weakening just prior to moving close to Guam, and then reintensification to the west-northwest of the Marianas. The animation below tracks the storm from near peak intensity to weakening to the northeast of the Philippines.

Total Precipitable Water fields from MIMIC, below, suggest the weakening near Guam may have been influenced by dry air that wrapped into the system from the west and south.

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Suomi-NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) images over the 4-day period from 26-29 May 2023 (above) displayed the anomalously low ice concentration (source) within a portion of Canada’s Amundsen Gulf — along with the formation of multiple ice leads, followed by the separation of large areas of fast ice within the eastern third of the satellite scene.

Much of this fast ice separation was the result of wind stress, shown by the easterly/northeasterly winds that prevailed during the period at Cape Perry CZCP — which included gusts in excess of 30 knots on 27 May as an anomalously deep low pressure moved eastward across the Northwest Territories into Nunavut (not surprisingly, the most significant areal extent of fast ice separation also occurred on 27 May).

A comparison of Suomi-NPP VIIRS Sea Ice Concentration, Sea Ice Thickness and Sea Ice Temperature derived products viewed using RealEarth (below) showed ice conditions on Day 1 of this 4-day period, before the stronger easterly winds on Day 2 led to more widespread development of ice leads and a separation of fast ice.

Probed values of those parameters over an area of fast ice that had not yet been fractured and separated (below) indicated a Sea Ice Thickness of 1.57 m, a Sea Ice Temperature of 269.14 K and a Sea Ice Concentration of 99% at that particular location.

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2 people were hospitalized after being struck by lightning on a Colorado Springs golf course (media report) around 2140 UTC on 26 May 2023. 5-minute GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above) showed thunderstorms that were increasing in coverage/intensity as they moved northeastward toward the Colorado Springs area (eventually producing 1.00-inch-diameter hail) — and Lightning Cast Probability values over Colorado Springs began to steadily increase after 1901 UTC, reaching or exceeding 50%/75%/90% at 2021 UTC/2046 UTC/2056 UTC respectively.

The occurrence of GLM Flash Extent Density pixels directly over Colorado Springs began at 2121 UTC — 25 minutes after the initial 90% LightningCast value, 35 minutes after the initial 75% LightningCast value and 60 minutes after the initial 50% LightningCast value. Decision support for outdoor events benefits from the lead time offered by the LightningCast tool.

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The LightningCast webite (here) includes a ‘Lightning Meteogram’ tool for airports within the USA and Canada; the one for the Colorado Springs CO airport (KCOS) for this event is shown below for both GOES-16 CONUS data (left) and GOES-18 PACUS/Meso (right) — a GOES-18 Mesoscale sector was over Colorado during this event. LightningCast probabilities — that a GLM detection will occur within the next 60 minutes — were very large before the lightning near the airport, and tapered off before the lightning diminished.

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