Beginning at 1713 UTC on 01 August 2022, GOES-18 began serving as GOES-West during an operational interleave period — so GOES-18 imagery routinely became available in AWIPS. Examples of GOES-18 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images from a combination of the Alaska, Pacific-US (PACUS) and Hawai`i Sectors are shown above.

GOES-18 multi-panel images of the PACUS Sector (below) displayed all 16 spectral bands of the ABI instrument.

A closer view of GOES-18 multi-panel images centered on Tropical Storm Frank is shown below.

Farther to the north, GOES-18 Visible images centered over Alaska (below) revealed an impressive southwesterly surge of stratus across the Chukchi Sea, which was moving toward the Bering Strait and the coast of Siberia (where some sea ice could be seen along the coast and offshore).

GOES-18 ABI data also replaced GOES-17 as GOES-West for users receiving imagery via GRB download. Some examples created by Tim Schmit (NOAA/NESDIS/ASPB) — using GOES-18 imagery downloaded by SSEC Satellite Data Services — are shown below.

Here's another view; full disk images of each @NOAASatellites #GOES18 ABI (operating as #GOESWest for imagery) spectral band: https://t.co/cQ2ZFpgWcM (select GOES-18) as the satellite. @UWCIMSS https://t.co/J3bM4Pyxmg pic.twitter.com/v6NhMBejsh

— Tim Schmit (@GOESguy) August 1, 2022

Another @NOAASatellites #GOES18 and #GOES17 ABI comparison for all the spectral bands of #Frank https://t.co/wT4V0Z8KRQ (watch the labels closely), HT @UWSSEC #geo2grid @UWCIMSS #GOESWest More on the interleave: https://t.co/pAojbIiaHM https://t.co/zciVho56oF pic.twitter.com/2TyKO126oR

— Tim Schmit (@GOESguy) August 1, 2022

This transition to GOES-18 will mitigate the degraded GOES-17 infrared imagery caused by its Loop Heat Pipe cooling issues. The Loop Heat Pipe system was re-designed for the GOES-18 ABI instrument. 

Additional information and examples can be found on the Satellite Liaison Blog.

 

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Fire Temperature RGB, “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) and Cloud Top Temperature derived product images (above) showed that the rapidly-growing McKinney Fire in far northern California produced multiple (5 or 6) pulses of pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds late in the day on 30 July 2022. The coldest pyroCb cloud-top 10.35 µm infrared brightness temperatures were around -55ºC, while the coldest pyroCb Cloud Top Temperature value was -59ºC.

This wildfire burned very hot — the peak 3.9 µm infrared brightness temperature was 138.71ºC, which is the saturation temperature of ABI Band 7 detectors.

During the subsequent overnight hours, a toggle between NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) images valid at 1039 UTC or 3:39 AM PDT (below) showed the bright nighttime glow and hot thermal signature of active fires around the perimeter of the large McKinney Fire burn scar.  Evacuation orders were in effect for portions of Yreta west of Interstate 5.

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GOES-18 images shown in this blog post are preliminary and non-operational

During its Post-Launch Testing (PLT) period, once GOES-18 drifted to a position close to its final “Operational GOES-West” longitude of 137º W, a “Barcode Artifact” of vertical striping was occasionally seen in colder scenes of Band 07 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) imagery — primarily centered around “spacecraft midnight” times, from 06-12 UTC . One example, using 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector images over the Alaska region on 20 July 2022, is shown above. Note that the vertical striping is more obvious over the colder (brighter white) clouds.

Another example on the same date is shown above, centered over the East Pacific Ocean off the coast of California and Mexico. Using the default grayscale enhancement, the Barcode Artifact is rather subtle and more difficult to notice. However, once a special “stretched” enhancement is applied to the images below, the Barcode Artifact becomes very notable across the extensive stratocumulus cloud deck over the ocean.

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The vertical striping of the Barcode Artifact will also appear in many multispectral products that use 3.9 µm imagery — for example, GOES-18 Nighttime Microphysics RGB images (created using Geo2Grid) over that same region are shown below.

It is important to note that the Barcode Artifact is not related to the Loop Heat Pipe cooling issue that has affected GOES-17 — plots of 2-day and 10-day Focal Plane Module temperatures for GOES-17 and GOES-18 (ending on 26 July 2022) are displayed below.

It also bears mentioning that this Barcode Artifact is also occurring with GOES-17 (GOES-West) imagery — but to a lesser extent compared to GOES-18. A plot of Band07-Band13 Difference values for GOES-17 vs. GOES-18 on 27 July 2022 is shown below.

A subtle example of GOES-17 Barcode Artifact can be seen toward the end of an animation of Night Fog BTD (11.2 µm – 3.9 µm) images on 26 July, shown below,

H/T to Jim Nelson (CIMSS) and Tim Schmit (NOAA/NESDIS/ASPB) for providing many of the GOES-18 animations. Additional information and examples of GOES-18 Barcode Artifact can be found at the Satellite Liaison Blog.

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GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed the development of multiple clusters of thunderstorms that were responsible for producing heavy rainfall and flash flooding across parts of eastern Kentucky during the nighttime hours leading up to sunrise on 28 July 2022. The coldest GOES-16 cloud-top infrared brightness temperature associated with these thunderstorms was -82.7ºC at 0431 UTC (within the small cluster of violet pixels over Jackson, Kentucky KJKL).

In a toggle between NOAA-20 VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images valid at 0634 UTC and 0814 UTC (below) the coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature was -83ºC (just northeast of Hazard, Kentucky at 0814 UTC). These NOAA-20 images were downloaded and processed using the SSEC/CIMSS Direct Broadcast ground station, before being displayed n AWIPS.

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