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VIIRS Imagery shows ice cover on Great Lakes

By Scott Lindstrom •

An uncommon somewhat clear day on 20 February 2021 allowed VIIRS on Suomi-NPP to provide a true-color image of all 5 Great Lakes. The true-color image above is shown in a toggle with GOES-16 “Snow-Ice” Band 5 near-infrared data (1.61 µm) that allows for discrimination between clouds made up of water droplets (bright white) and underlying snow/ice (darker grey). ... Read More

Suomi-NPP VIIRS true-color imagery (1843 UTC) and GOES-16 Band 5 (1.61 µm) imagery (1841 UTC) on 20 February 2021 (Click to enlarge)

An uncommon somewhat clear day on 20 February 2021 allowed VIIRS on Suomi-NPP to provide a true-color image of all 5 Great Lakes. The true-color image above is shown in a toggle with GOES-16 “Snow-Ice” Band 5 near-infrared data (1.61 µm) that allows for discrimination between clouds made up of water droplets (bright white) and underlying snow/ice (darker grey).  Much of western Lake Superior shows ice:  highly reflective in the true color imagery and much darker in the snow/ice channel (but not quite as dark as open water).  Lake Superior has about 50% ice coverage (this figure, originally from this website).  Western Lake Michigan shows little ice coverage (except over Green Bay);  ice coverage on Michigan is less than 30%.   Lake Erie is the most ice-covered of the Lakes:  around 80% ice-covered.  Recent northwesterly winds have moved the pack ice away from the northern shore (except for the far western basin).

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Ice motion on the Great Lakes

By Scott Bachmeier •

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) revealed the fracturing of land-fast ice in the far southern portion of Lake Michigan on 19 February 2021. Although the westerly wind speeds were not particularly strong — generally 15-20 knots over water, including Metop ASCAT winds early in the day — these winds... Read More

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) revealed the fracturing of land-fast ice in the far southern portion of Lake Michigan on 19 February 2021. Although the westerly wind speeds were not particularly strong — generally 15-20 knots over water, including Metop ASCAT winds early in the day — these winds in tandem with lake currents were enough to move some of this ice eastward.

Farther to the north over western Lake Superior, 5-minute CONUS sector GOES-16 Visible images (below) also showed a significant amount of ice motion during the day.

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

A 30-meter resolution Landsat-8 False Color RGB image viewed using RealEarth (below) provided a more detailed look at the ice structure over western Lake Superior at 1653 UTC. Ice and areas of vegetation-sparse snow cover (rivers, lakes and wildfire burn scars) appear as shades of cyan in the RGB image.

Landsat-8 False Color RGB image [click to enlarge]

Landsat-8 False Color RGB image [click to enlarge]

===== 20 February Update =====

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

On 20 February, another look at 1-minute GOES-16 Visible images over southern Lake Michigan (above) indicated that new ice leads were opening up within individual ice floes that had broken free a day earlier.

===== 21 February Update =====

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

On 21 February, GOES-16 Visible images (above) showed how southerly winds were shifting much the ice in Lake Erie to the north. However, the effects of lake currents on the ice motion were also evident. As mentioned in this blog post, ice coverage on Lake Erie was around 80%.

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Eruption of Mount Etna

By Scott Bachmeier •

EUMETSAT Meteosat-11 False Color RGB images from the NOAA/CIMSS Volcanic Cloud Monitoring site (above) showed the signature of a volcanic cloud associated with an eruption of Mount Etna on 19 February 2021. The brighter shades of red/magenta suggested the presence of ash within the volcanic cloud. This was supported by high values of... Read More

Meteosat-11 False Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

Meteosat-11 False Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

EUMETSAT Meteosat-11 False Color RGB images from the NOAA/CIMSS Volcanic Cloud Monitoring site (above) showed the signature of a volcanic cloud associated with an eruption of Mount Etna on 19 February 2021. The brighter shades of red/magenta suggested the presence of ash within the volcanic cloud. This was supported by high values of retrieved Ash Loading (below).

Meteosat-11 Ash Loading product [click to play animation | MP4]

Meteosat-11 Ash Loading product [click to play animation | MP4]

A Meteosat-11 Ash Effective Radius Product (below) depicted rather large ash particles, generally in the 14-16 µm range.

Meteosat-11 Ash Effective Radius product [click to play animation | MP4]

Meteosat-11 Ash Effective Radius product [click to play animation | MP4]

A Meteosat-11 Ash Height product (below) showed retrieved values up to 12-13 km (magenta enhancement) for parts of the volcanic cloud.

Meteosat-11 Ash Height product [click to play animation | MP4]

Meteosat-11 Ash Height product [click to play animation | MP4]

Another version of Meteosat-11 False Color RGB images which use 8.7 µm data (below) revealed shades of green that indicated a higher concentration of SO2 within the southern portion of the volcanic cloud.

Meteosat-11 False Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

Meteosat-11 False Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

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East Pacific storm, as viewed by GOES-17 and GOES-15

By Scott Bachmeier •

The rapid intensification of a Storm Force low over the East Pacific Ocean during the 17-18 February 2021 period (surface analyses) could be seen on Water Vapor images from GOES-17 (6.9 µm) and GOES-15 (6.5 µm) (above). This was from the final full day of GOES-15 imaging operations (while the satellite... Read More

Water Vapor images from GOES-17 (6.9 µm, left) and GOES-15 (6.5 µm, right) [click to play animation | MP4]

Water Vapor images from GOES-17 (6.9 µm, left) and GOES-15 (6.5 µm, right) [click to play animation | MP4]

The rapid intensification of a Storm Force low over the East Pacific Ocean during the 17-18 February 2021 period (surface analyses) could be seen on Water Vapor images from GOES-17 (6.9 µm) and GOES-15 (6.5 µm) (above). This was from the final full day of GOES-15 imaging operations (while the satellite was briefly taken out of on-orbit storage to perform its annual checkout activities). As was mentioned in this blog post, GOES-17’s improvements in spatial resolution and imaging frequency allowed for better monitoring of this feature as it approached the Alaska Panhandle. The images are displayed in the native projection of each of the 2 satellites.

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