From GOES-A (1) in 1975, to GOES-T (18) launched in 2022! On January 4, 2023 GOES-18 is operational as GOES-West, here’s a look-back at all the GOES. Note that the GOES-R series imagers support the generation of a true color image, given they have the blue (or 0.47 micrometer) band. Continuity is critical for operational satellites and this shows the case, as well as these GOES satellite timeline from this CIMSS Satellite Blog post. A glimpse into a bit of what the GOES ABI observed in 2022.

The GOES-18 thumbnail is when the satellite was at its initial check-out location.

More on the “high noon” geostationary imager composite from UW/SSEC, which now includes the GOES-18 ABI.

All the NOAA GOES data for the thumbnails have been accessed via the University of Wisconsin – Madison SSEC Satellite Data Services. The Full Disk images were made using McIDAS-X software, and combined with a series of ImageMagik commands.

View only this post Read Less

Heavy rains have finally hit California, which declared a state of emergency on Wednesday January 4 due to extreme rainfall amounts. The GOES-West enhanced Band 9 imagery (6.9 µm, mid-level water vapor) illustrates how moisture associated with the recent similar Trans-Pacific atmospheric river generated heavy rainfall for much of California, Oregon, and Washington. Overlayed with NEXRAD radar reflectivity, the animation below paints a good picture of the rainfall that accumulated within the 21 hours shown.

The California Nevada River Forecast Center reports that some areas in northern California have already accumulated up to five inches of rain in the past 24 hours. Flooding has already created dangerous situations for the residents of California.  

Readers can recreate the above animation and explore other GOES data using RealEarth, a free web-based visualization tool for satellite and other remote sensing weather products.

View only this post Read Less

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 (brief periods with horizontal striping in the earlier GOES-17 images was due to that satellite’s Loop Heat Pipe issue).  As the crude oil tanker POLAR RESOLUTION was moving south-southeastward along the western periphery of the storm, it reported winds as strong as 50-60 knots which were frequently producing blowing spray (1001 UTC Air Mass RGB image) — and Buoy 46006 reported wind gusts of 60 knots (2001 UTC Air Mass RGB image) and wave heights of 41 feet.

With abundant illumination from the Moon (which was in the Waxing Gibbous phase, at 95% of Full), a Suomi-NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) image at 1004 UTC (2:44 AM PST) on 04 January provided an excellent “visible image at night” of the storm. Note the POLAR RESOLUTION report of 55 knot winds with blowing spray (near the western edge of the storm’s cloud shield).

GOES-17/GOES-18 True Color RGB (and Nighttime Microphysics RGB) images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below) displayed the cloud features within the storm’s broad circulation, in addition to a long/narrow cloud band associated with its trailing cold front (which eventually moved south of all the islands of Hawai`i, except the Big Island — as shown in the surface analysis at 0000 UTC on 05 January).

View only this post Read Less

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 time. There are noticeable changes between the 1756 and 1806 UTC fields, likely because the numerical model output used in GOES-R IFR Probability fields will change every hour, that is (in this case) at 1800 UTC.

The toggle below shows the airmass RGB from GOES-17 at 1756 and from GOES-18 at 1806 UTC over the same domain; note that stripes at 1756 UTC (an artifact of Loop Heat Pipe issues in GOES-17) are not present at 1806 UTC in the GOES-18 imagery.

View only this post Read Less