Overlapping 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sectors provided GOES-16 (GOES-East) images at 30-second intervals from all 16 of the ABI spectral bands (above), which displayed the northeast-moving bright reflectance and/or the warm thermal signature of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster as the Crew-7 Mission was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 0727 UTC (3:27 AM EST) on 26 August 2023. The low-altitude rocket launch condensation cloud was also evident in imagery from the Infrared bands (07-16), located just offshore from the launch site. One or both of these rocket launch signatures were unambiguously detected by 15 of 16 of the ABI spectral bands (02-16), as well as Rocket Plume RGB images. A notable feature was the signature of the Stage 1 “Boostback Burn” — where the expansion/cooling of the rocket engine’s gas plume was apparent in the Band 08 image at 0730 UTC.  Note: the default enhancements of the Visible bands (01 and 02) and Near-Infrared bands (03-06) were modified, to help better visualize the nighttime rocket signature.

A 16-panel display of GOES-16 ABI spectral bands at 0728 UTC (below) showed the rocket signature in bands 02-16 at that time.

In fact, a very subtle reflectance signature was also apparent in ABI spectral band 01 immediately after launch at 0727 UTC — it was partially masked by the map overlay, which was removed for the 0726-0727 UTC comparison seen below.

A zoomed-in view using a stepped sequence of GOES-16 images from 16 ABI spectral bands 03, 05, 06 and 07 (below) showed the brighter/warmer signature of the Falcon 9 rocket Stage 1 Landing Burn at 0734 UTC, as it successfully returned to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

A GOES-18 (GOES-West) Mesoscale Domain Sector was also positioned over the region, providing 1-minute images from a more oblique perspective (below).

A 16-panel display of GOES-18 ABI spectral bands at 0728 UTC (below) showed that rocket signature was evident in bands 02-16 (as was the case with GOES-16).

Thanks to Todd Beltracci, The Aerospace Corporation, for his insightful discussion on several aspects of this imagery.

View only this post Read Less

Direct Broadcast antennae give timely full-resolution imagery from various Low-Earth-Orbit satellites as they move within the view of the satellite received. Community Satellite Processing Package (CSPP) software takes the downloaded signal and produces imagery (or AWIPS-ready files). The toggle above shows VIIRS (Visible-Infrared Imaging Scanning Radiometer) and ATMS (Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder) data from NOAA-20 from a Guam overpass near 0300 on 25 August 2023. A benefit of having visible/infrared and microwave instruments on the same orbiting platform is that it’s easier to compare (directly) features in the two images. In this case, note how the brightest (whitest) features in VIIRS channel M15 (10.8 µm) are very cold in the 88 GHz, and have large rain-rates.

Data from direct broadcast also allows a user to compare microwave data from two different satellites. NOAA-20 and GCOM-W1 both carry microwave sounders (the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer — ASMR-2 — in GCOM-W1) that sense energy at similar frequencies. The toggle below compares ATMS data at 88 GHz and AMSR-2 data at 89.2 GHz from about the same time. Note the significantly better resolution from AMSR-2!

---

Thanks to Doug Schumacher, SSEC/CIMSS, for supplying these images!

View only this post Read Less

5-minute GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images with an overlay of the Total Precipitable Water (TPW) derived product (above) showed a pocket of high moisture — with TPW values in the 2.0-2.3 inch range — just northeast of a quasi-stationary front that was draped across lower Michigan during the nighttime hours preceding sunrise on 24 August 2023. As a Mesoscale Convective System was expanding south-southwestward from Ontario into Ohio, it produced an outflow boundary that moved to the northwest across lower Michigan — and that outflow boundary appeared to play a role in enhancing the development of new thunderstorms that then moved southeast across the Detroit (METAR identifier KDTW) area.

A closer look at GOES-16 Infrared images as the thunderstorms moved across the Detroit area is shown above with plots of 15-minute surface reports, and below with plots of 1-hour Precipitation Accumulation. Detroit Metro Wayne County Airport (KDTW) and Detroit Willow Run Airport (KYIP) as well as Monroe (KTTF) had rainfall rates in excess of 1.5-2.0 inches per hour at times. Total rainfall accumulations from these storms were as high as 7.36 inches in Wayne County and 6.80 inches in Monroe County.

The heavy rainfall led to flooding of roadways and tunnels leading to KDTW (below) — which resulted in a brief ground stop of air traffic (media story) until the flooding subsided and roads could re-open allowing access to the airport.

View only this post Read Less

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) + Fire Power derived product (a component of the GOES Fire Detection and Characterization Algorithm FDCA) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) showed the thermal signature associated with the Tiger Island Fire in far western Louisiana on 22 August 2023. A combination of mandatory and voluntary evacuations were issued for parts of the Singer and Merryville areas in Beauregard Parish.

A cursor sample of GOES-16 Visible + Fire Power and Shortwave Infrared images at 2306 UTC (below) revealed that the Tiger Island Fire exhibited a maximum 3.9 µm infrared brightness temperature of 138.71ºC — which is the saturation temperature of the GOES-16 ABI Band 7 detectors) at 2306 UTC — and Fire Power values exceeded 2300 MW at times.

A toggle between NOAA-20 (mis-labelled as NPP) Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) images valid at 0746 UTC on 23 August (below) showed the thermal signature and nighttime glow of the wildfire.

GOES-14 was temporarily brought out of storage for its annual instrument testing and evaluation — which allowed a “old vs. new” comparison of this wildfire, using 15-minute GOES-14 and 1-minute GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared images (below). The images are displayed in the native projection of each satellite.

View only this post Read Less