A benefit of the CSPP Geosphere site is that long animations can be constructed that don’t include every image. The animation above (link) shows hourly true-color (daytime) and Night Time microphysics RGB (nighttime) from 1801 UTC on 18 May 2022 to 2001 UTC on 20 May 2022. This is achieved after clicking on the date in the upper right corner of the image by adjusting the ‘stride’ to — in this case — every 12th image, and increasing the number of frames viewed. The animation above shows a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) generating over the High Plains late in the day on 18 May and developing into a Mesoscale Convective Vortex (MCV) that persists through late in the day on 20 May 2022 over the mid-Atlantic States. It is unusual for MCVs to persist through the night.

For a MCV to persist, certain environmental conditions must be present. In particular, atmospheric wind shear should be small, and moisture and instability should be greater than normal. In this way, convection can be continually generated to help sustain the cyclonic vortex. The stepped animation below shows 6-h HRRR forecasts (from this website) of Most Unstable Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE), Total Precipitable Water, and 0-6 km shear, valid at 1800 UTC on 19 May (when the MCV was over central Missouri) and 0600 UTC on 20 May 2022 (when the MCV was over Ohio). The region near the MCV center has small values of shear, and large values of moisture and instability.

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The true-color animation above, produced from the CSPP Geosphere site, shows bore-like cloud features over northern Lake Michigan shortly after sunrise on 20 May 2022. These parallel lines of clouds are mostly likely to persist in regions where a low-level inversion is present. NUCAPS profiles from the 0800 UTC overpass of NOAA-20, shown below, show an inversion below 850 mb over the central parts of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The cold waters over the lake would likely amplify the strength of this inversion. The Green Bay soundings from 1200 UTC (here, from this site), also shows a low-level stable layer.

Thanks to Rick Mamrosh, WFO GRB, for bringing these cloud features to our attention! Check out the link on their Facebook page.

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Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery can give very high-resolution observations of winds in regions where wind observations are otherwise sparse (or non-existent). The image above and below show data from an ascending pass of Canada’s RADARSAT Constellation Mission 2 (RCM2) satellite. These data are available online (click here for the image above, and here for the image below), but netcdf files can also be inserted into AWIPS for a direct comparison to other satellite imagery. The image above shows the increase in wind speeds (about 11 m/s) associated with a broken line of cumulus clouds, with stronger winds over the northwest part of the SAR domain. The later image, below, farther north, shows generally stronger winds, and it also shows local wind maxima out in front of cloud formations (in the southeast corner of the SAR domain).

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The image above (credit to Rick Kohrs from SSEC/CIMSS) shows Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) data from GOES-17 (West), GOES-18 (Central, Preliminary/Non-Operational), and GOES-16 (East) on 15 May 2022. This “Local Noon CIMSS Natural Color” image is created by blending vertical strips of true-color imagery at local noon, starting in the east and proceeding westward. This was a rare opportunity for the GOES-R Series as GOES-18 was only at the central location (89.5W) for a limited time. A larger (5509×4207) version of this image is also available.

Other CIMSS Blog entries have introduced GOES-18, the latest in the GOES-R series. NOAA and NASA recently released the first ABI (Advanced Baseline Imager) imagery from GOES-18 (including this 2-min video). GOES-T was launched on 1 March 2022. Currently GOES-18 is “drifting” out west to be near the “West” position. GOES-18 is slated to become NOAA’s operational GOES-West in early 2023 (GOES-18 Post Launch Test and Transition Plan) after a thorough post-launch test period.

SSEC/CIMSS scientists (notably Rick Kohrs) create daily imagery that blends vertical strips of true-color imagery at local Noon, starting near the dateline and proceeding westward. Recent images are available at this website and include data from 5 geostationary satellites: Himawari, GOES-West, GOES-East, Meteosat-Prime, and Meteosat-IODC. There are multiple other blog posts featuring and explaining the local-noon composite.

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