10-minute Full Disk scan GOES-19 (GOES-East) True Color RGB images along with the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) derived product from the CSPP GeoSphere site (above) displayed a plume of blowing dust — which was originating from salt flats along the northern edge of Laguna Mar Chiquita in northern Argentina — being transported south-southwestward on 12 June 2025. AOD values associated with this dust plume were as high as 1.0 (darker red enhancement).

GOES-19 Aerosol Optical Depth images that included plots of surface reports (below) showed that northeast winds at Cordoba (the METAR site just west of the blowing dust plume) were gusting to 27 knots (31 mph) at 1800 UTC.

The GOES-19 Dust Detection derived product (below) also flagged this blowing dust feature.

The strong northeast surface winds responsible for this blowing dust were caused by the pressure gradient between high pressure centered off the east coast of South America and a trough of low pressure across western/central Argentina (below).

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10-minute Full Disk scan GOES-18 (GOES-West) True Color RGB and Near-Infrared “Cirrus” (1.37 µm) images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (above) showed a plume of Canadian wildfire smoke over parts of Alaska on 11 June 2025. This plume of smoke aloft was initially drifting westward across Yukon and Interior Alaska early in the day — then curved southward as it eventually wrapped around the circulation of a large low pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska later in the day. The 1.37 µm “Cirrus” spectral band is effective at detecting visible light scattered by airborne particles (such as cirrus cloud ice crystals, airborne dust or volcanic ash, and in this case, smoke — for example, see other cases in 2020 and 2017). Note that the ribbon of wildfire smoke was more apparent over the eastern Gulf of Alaska in the 1.37 µm imagery compared to the True Color RGB imagery (due to bright lower-altitude clouds masking the hazy appearance of the smoke) — especially toward the end of the time period, when the leading edge of the ribbon of smoke began to move over the Alaska Panhandle (0400 UTC image comparison).

GOES-18 Visible images with plots of Ceiling/Visibility (below) confirmed that this smoke remained aloft, with no restriction of surface visibility at any of the sites beneath the plume (visibility in miles is the bottom number, just below the circles listing cloud ceiling values at each site).

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GOES-West true color imagery, above, from the CSPP Geosphere site (link), shows Hurricane Barbara northeast of Tropical Storm Cosme in the eastern Pacific. Active convection is apparent over both storm centers during the course of the day. What does the future hold for these storms? MIMIC Total Precipitable Water (source), below, shows the storms within a band of rich moisture, but forecasts paths for both are towards the north and drier air.

The predicted path of the storms is over much colder water. Do not expect to hear much about these storms by the end of the week!

Both storms are within a band of relatively low shear as shown below. It is increasingly cool SSTs along the storm paths, and an increasingly dry atmosphere, that will be controlling the intensity of these storms in the near future.

HYSAT and OCEANSAT scatterometers both sampled both storms on 9 June, as shown in the toggle below. HYSAT overflew the storms at 1358 UTC and OCEANSAT overflew at 2014 UTC. Both show the cyclonic circulation centers. Barbara’s center is moving northwest whereas Cosme’s is moving west-northwest.

For more information on these storms, refer to the National Hurricane Center. In addition, the SSEC/CIMSS Tropical Weather site has dedicated pages for both Barbara and Cosme.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed supercell thunderstorms that produced tornadoes, hail as large as 4.25″ in diameter and wind gusts as high as 100 mph (SPC Storm Reports) across parts of Texas and Oklahoma on 08 June 2025. Frequent pulses of overshooting tops were apparent with these thunderstorms.

In the corresponding 1-minute GOES-19 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (below), the coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures associated with some of the pulsing overshooting tops were -80ºC or colder (shades of magenta embedded within bright white regions).

Many of these thunderstorms were moving into a broad corridor of enhanced instability and moisture that was in place from northern Texas into southern Oklahoma, as shown by GOES-19 CAPE (above) and Total Precipitable Water (below) derived products.

1-minute GOES-19 Visible images with an overlay of GLM Flash Points (below) displayed abundant lightning activity with these thunderstorms.

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