It’s very hard to choose just one event from every month of the year, but the goal is to show the range of phenomena and locations that NOAA‘s GOES ABI routinely monitors, in this case during 2022. Most loops generated are from the University of Wisconsin-Madison CIMSS Satellite Blog, which is linked from the top of the entries. Imagery from GOES-16, -17 and -18 is showcased, along with the sectors it scans: Full Disk (10-min intervals), Contiguous US (5-min intervals) and mesoscale sectors (30-sec to 1-min intervals).

January Hunga Tonga Volcano

These GOES animations show the rapid expansion of a volcanic cloud following an explosive eruption of Hunga Tonga on 15 January 2022, as well as the pulse of energy as it spreads out from the center as evident in a series of time difference images. A similar GOES-17 ABI loop won the 2022 University of Wisconsin-Madison Cool Science Images (in the animation category).

February Snow Squalls over Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin

The greenish colors show clear, snow-covered ground, the purplish colors the low-clouds (snow squalls), while the orange colors denote high clouds. A direct link to the above mp4 video.

March Widfires and Smoke

A direct link to the loop showing the smoke plume in Texas with GOES-16 imagery every minute; as well as the 4-panel AWIPS display that included derived fire products.

April Smoke and Dust

GOES-16 (GOES-East) True Color RGB images revealed dense smoke plumes moving southeastward from wildfires in New Mexico, while blowing dust plunged southward from Colorado/Kansas (along and behind a cold front). The mp4 animation.

May Early GOES-18 ABI

GOES-T was launched on March 1st (monitored by 30-sec imagery from both GOES-16 and -17) and once it was in a geostationary orbit, became GOES-18. These image are from early in its on-orbit check-out. The mp4 loop of the ABI spectral bands. Many imagery comparisons.

June Midwest storms

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images include time-matched SPC Storm Reports — and showed the development severe thunderstorms across parts of Iowa, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.

July Hurricane Darby

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images showed the evolution of the eye of Hurricane Darby as it moved westward across the East Pacific Ocean on 11 July 2022. Mesovortices were evident within the eye.

Bonus case: Fog

A link to the above animation, as well as one transitioning to a composite of visible ABI bands during the day light hours.

August 30-sec imagery

The above loop, plus a visible band loop, as well as one from the longwave window infrared ABI band (which has been color-coded).

Bonus case: Ice

GOES-16 True Color RGB images showed patches of remnant thick first-year ice in southern Hudson Bay, Canada (off the coast of Ontario).

September Hurricanes Ian / Charley comparison

The mp4 loop from above demonstrating the great advances in monitoring hurricanes between 2004 and 2022, comparing GOES-16 (on the left) and GOES-12 (on the right). A 16 panel of Hurricane Ian from the ABI showing the range of scales that the ABI monitors in a given image.

October Tropical Invest

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images showed the compact exposed low-level circulation of Tropical Invest 94L as it moved northward away from Bermuda. Satellites are key in monitoring hurricane formations.

November Volcanic eruption in Hawaii

A mp4 loop of the Ash/Dust Probability, as well as the 16 ABI spectral bands. Note there are 2 visible, 4 near-infrared and 10 infrared bands. Satellites are critical for monitoring volcanic ash that can pose a hazard to aviation safety.

December MTG-I1 Rocket Launch

EUMETSAT‘s MTG-I1 launched from French Guyana, the plume was captured with 1-min GOES-16 meso-scale sectors.

Bonus: Summer Solstice to Winter Solstice

The terminator clearly shows the changing illumination of the Earth from the Sun over the seasons, in this cases from the (northern hemisphere) summer to winter solstices. And an interactive web page. A similar loop from 2021. Several webapps that help explain the seasons. A 17 UTC daily loop over 2022.

H/T

Thanks to all who make the satellite imagery possible, the ingest and software to display the imagery (including, but not limited to McIDAS-X, geo2grid, geosphere, Real Earth and AWIPS) and all who generated CIMSS Satellite Blog entries, especially Scott Bachmeier and Scott Lindstrom. Special thanks to Mat Gunshor and Jim Nelson of UW/CIMSS.

A similar ‘Year in Review’ for 2021; 2022 by NOAA Satellites.

Also, some “top 25” GOES-16 and GOES-17 ABI loops. Also see the Satellite Liaison Blog.

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By animating daily NOAA GOES-16 ABI Full Disk true color imagery, how the Earth is illuminated over time can be seen. For example, the minimum in incoming solar radiation in the Northern Hemisphere associated with the Winter Solstice. For details, see “What is a Solstice?” by SciJinks. Or this NOAA https://www.noaa.gov/education/news/share-your-solstice-sunset-with-noaa-education post.

11 UTC loops from the Summer to Winter Solstices. These posted GOES ABI Full Disk imagery are only showing a small number of the pixels, for a fuller resolution image at one time (20-March-2022).

The above loop, and slowed down to a duration of 1min. The 16 bands of ABI from GOES-West and GOES-East from UW/CIMSS.

Interactive web page

An interactive web page with almost a years (2022) worth of GOES ABI Full Disk visible images at 11 UTC. The beginning date is the (northern hemisphere) summer solstice in 2022 and the end date is the winter solstice in 2022. A user can play the animation, as well as annotate the images. For example, draw lines along the terminator for different times of the year. One example might be to compare a solstice to an equinox. Can you estimate the day of the summery equinox? H/T Tom Whittaker, SSEC, for the webapp, as well as those below.

Compare two images

Drag the vertical bar to display a Northern Hemisphere (NH) GOES-16 11 UTC image at the Summer or Winter Solstices.

A short movie, showing a Summer Solstice, Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice GOES-16 ABI 11 UTC image.

Webapps about the Seasons

H/T

These images were made using NOAA data with geo2grid software, from UW-Madison, SSEC. T. Whittaker is thanked for the webapps.

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An anomalousy deep extratropical storm or “Kona Storm” north of Hawai`i (surface analyses) brought strong winds and heavy rainfall to much of the island chain during the 18-20 December 2022 period. GOES-17 (GOES-West) Air Mass RGB images (above) showed the core of the storm (darker shades of orange-red) as well as widespread thunderstorms along and ahead of the storm’s strong cold front.

GOES-17 Total Precipitable Water and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (below) depicted the tropical moisture that was drawn northward across the islands, providing fuel for development of the thunderstorms.

A closer view using GOES-17 Infrared images (below) showed the cold cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures associated with the thunderstorm activity — some of which was responsible for an aircraft encounter with severe turbulence.

On 20 December, a sequence of GOES-17 True Color RGB and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below) showed fresh snow cover on the higher elevations of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Note the lack of snow cover at the summit of the recent Mauna Loa eruption — this was caused by warm sub-surface lava from that eruption, which melted the snow.

A toggle between GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images at 2251 UTC (below) provided a closer view of the thermal signature at the Mauna Loa summit.

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On 18 December 2022, Hawaiian Airlines Flight 35 (HAL 35, from Phoenix to Honolulu) encountered severe turbulence about 30 minutes prior to landing, which injured 36 passengers and crew (media report). GOES-17 (GOES-West) Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images (above) include contours of Moderate Or Greater (MOG) Turbulence Probability and Pilot Report (PIREP) plots of turbulence (source); the severe turbulence reportedly occurred at 2016 UTC at an altitude of 36,000 feet (note: the actual HAL 35 Severe Turbulence PIREP plot for this event did not appear on the MOG Probability images).

AWIPS images of “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Upper-level Water Vapor and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) with MOG Turbulence Probability contours are shown below. Unfortunately, the HAL 35 PIREP of severe turbulence also did not show up in the AWIPS imagery. Thunderstorms were increasing in intensity and areal coverage north and northeast of Hawai`i during this time period — the coldest 10.3 µm cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures of those thunderstorms were generally in the -50 to -55ºC range (brighter shades of green).

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The PIREP for this event (taken from the Preliminary Aviation FTR filed by WFO Honolulu) shows the turbulence occurred 65 nautical miles northeast of Kahului airport (OGG) on Maui:

PIREP: HNL UUA /OV OGG020065/TM 2016/FL360/TP A332/TB SEV

Visible imagery for the time of the incident is shown below.

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Upon further interrogation of the flight log and flight path data from Flightaware.com, it appears as though the actual turbulence encounter might likely have occurred close to 20:07:32 UTC, at an altitude of 39-40,000 feet (with a rapid descent, immediately followed by rapid ascent), at latitude/longitude 22.28ºN / 154.87ºW. The aforementioned PIREP (included in the Preliminary Aviation FTR) was probably transmitted at a slightly later time and different location/altitude (which is not an uncommon occurrence, as pilots first assess the aircraft situation before sending a PIREP). The GOES-17 Infrared image at 2006 UTC (above) includes a cursor-sampled cloud-top infrared brightness temperature value of -56.75ºC near the turbulence encounter location (Note: 20:06:17 UTC was the start time of the GOES-17 PACUS (Pacific-US) sector scan — however, the satellite was actuallly scanning the area of the turbulence event at 20:07:47 UTC).

A toggle between 2006 UTC GOES-17 Visible, Water Vapor and Infrared images is shown below. Note the small overshooting top depicted in the Visible image, which was casting a shadow to its north-northwest — this thunderstorm overshooting top was located within the 50% MOG Turbulence Probability (yellow) contour.

Plots of rawinsonde data from Lihue and Hilo, Hawai`i at 00 UTC on 19 December (below) showed that the -56.75ºC cloud-top infrared brightness temperature sampled on the 2006 UTC image roughly corresponded to an altitude of 42,000 feet — suggesting that the overshooting top of that particular thunderstorm likely reached /exceeded Hawaiian Airlines Flight 35’s cruising altitude of 40,000 feet.

In a closer view of the cluster of thunderstorms likely responsible for the severe turbulence using GOES-17 Visible and Infrared images along with the Cloud Top Height (CTH) derived product (below), maximum CTH values were around 39,530 feet (darker shades of blue). 

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