A display of all 16 ABI spectral bands from GOES-16 (GOES-East) showed that a hot thermal signature of the SpaceX Starship Falcon Heavy rocket booster was apparent in Near-Infrared & Infrared bands 04-16 at 2101 UTC during its Test Flight 6 on 19th November 2024. In addition, the rocket exhaust condensation cloud was seen in all 16 spectral bands, as it began to drift northeast away from the Starbase launch site along the south coast of Texas..

10-minute Full Disk scan True Color RGB images (source) of the rocket exhaust condensation cloud as viewed from both GOES-18 (GOES-West) and GOES-16 are shown below (the images are displayed in the native projection of each satellite). Since the launch was late in the afternoon, the higher-altitude portions of the condensation cloud cast long shadows onto the water surface off the Texas coast.

A plot of rawinsonde data from Brownsville, Texas (below) depicted speed and directional wind shear at high altitudes, which acted to distort the shape of the exhaust condensation cloud.

Another comparison of 10-minute Full Disk scan True Color RGB images — created using Geo2Grid — showed the rocket exhaust condensation plume as viewed from GOES-18, GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) and GOES-16. In this example, the images from all 3 satellites were remapped to a common projection.

5-minute CONUS sector GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) True Color RGB images (below) provided another view of the rocket condensation plume at a higher temporal resolution.

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Mostly clear skies over the Great Lakes early on 18 November allowed for good satellite estimates of Lake Surface temperatures. They are, in a word, very warm. The toggle above compares estimates from NOAA-20 and from GOES-16. The stepped animation below (source) compares November 17th values this year with those from 2021, 2022 and 2023, and a tabular comparison for the past 4 years follows.

Year	Superior	Michigan	Huron	Erie	Ontario
2021	8.24	10.09	10.18	11.43	10.30
2022	5.49	7.95	8.89	9.44	10.15
2023	6.52	9.63	8.60	11.07	9.71
2024	8.28	11.86	10.83	13.95	11.07

Mean temperature plots of the five Great Lakes, shown below in comparison to the mean value (based on 1998-2023), also show the anomalous warmth (source).

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The ACSPO imagery above gives similar results from both satellites, although the higher resolution of VIIRS allows for better identification of small-scale features, and allows for values closer to the shoreline; values between the two satellites agree to within a degree of so Fahrenheit, with GOES estimates showing warmer temperatures generally. The zoomed-in toggles below compare GOES-16/NOAA-20 over Lake Superior to the east of the Keewenaw Peninsula, and over southern Lake Michigan. The pixel size difference is obvious in the zoomed-in imagery.

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The unseasonably warm waters of the Great Lakes mean that when temperatures do cool enough to support Lake Effect Snow, that Lake Effect snow might, at least initially, be a lot more intense than in a year with more normal Lake Surface Temperatures. NOAA-20 ACSPO SSTs were created using CSPP software and the Direct Broadcast data downloaded via the antenna located at CIMSS. You can also view the ACSPO SSTs at this (transitory) website.

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Target Sector (2.5-minute interval) JMA Himawari-9 AHI Red Visible (0.64 µm) and Clean Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above) showed Super Typhoon Man-Yi as it made landfall along the Philippines island of Luzon on 17th November 2024. Low-altitude mesovortices were apparent within the eye as it was offshore — then a notable convective burst developed as the eye became cloud-filled shortly after moving inland.

A toggle between VIIRS Day/Night Band images from NOAA-21 and Suomi-NPP (below) provided two high-resolution views of Man-Yi as it approached Luzon.

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5-minute CONUS sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) Red Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) displayed an intensifying Hurricane Force low pressure system over the western Atlantic Ocean (not far off the North Carolina coast) on 15th November 2024. Note the area of haziness just west-southwest of the center of the surface low — this milky/hazy appearance was due to the enhanced diffuse reflection of sunlight off a very agitated sea surface (where high waves and abundant sea spray were present, caused by a burst of strong surface winds across that particular area).

About an hour after the beginning of the GOES-16 Visible image animation, Metop-C ASCAT Ultra High Resolution surface winds at 1529 UTC (source) depicted a small area of wind speeds greater than 50 knots, just west of the light winds near the center of the low pressure system (below) — and the 1531 UTC GOES-16 image also showed a few GOES-16 Derived Motion Wind vectors with speeds of 51-53 knots just west of the surface low.

GOES-16 Visible images that included plots of GOES-16 Derived Motion Winds (DMW) within the marine boundary layer (Surface-900 hPa) are shown below — which highlighted cloud-tracked DMW speeds of 63-66 knots (72-76 mph) just south of the hazy-appearing areas of rough seas.

The hazy-appearing area of high waves + sea spray was even more apparent in 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 True Color images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below). A few southeastward bursts of cumulus clouds were also seen emanating from the southern edge of the region of dense convective clouds — a potential signature of a sting jet descending toward the sea surface.

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