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Persistent snow cover in Oklahoma and Kansas

By Scott Bachmeier •

A toggle between NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color and False Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (above) showed a patch of snow cover that remained across parts of northwestern Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Panhandle and southwestern Kansas on 08 December 2020. This was residual snow cover from a winter storm that occurred 6 days earlier (on... Read More

NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color and False Color RGB images [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color and False Color RGB images [click to enlarge]

A toggle between NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color and False Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (above) showed a patch of snow cover that remained across parts of northwestern Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Panhandle and southwestern Kansas on 08 December 2020. This was residual snow cover from a winter storm that occurred 6 days earlier (on 02 December — NWS Amarillo | NWS Norman | NWS Dodge City | NOHRSC total snowfall).

The GOES-16 (GOES-East) Land Surface Temperature (LST) product at 1900 UTC (below) displayed LST values in the 30s F (shades of cyan to blue) over the patch of snow cover, in stark contrast to LST values in the 60s F (shades of green) across adjacent areas of bare ground.

GOES-16 Land Surface Temperature product [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 Land Surface Temperature product [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images (below) included plots of hourly surface weather type as the middle-tropospheric low responsible for the winter storm moved slowly across the region on 02-03 December.

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with plots of hourly surface weather type [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with plots of hourly surface weather type [click to play animation | MP4]

===== 09 December Update =====

NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color RGB images on 08 and 09 December [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color RGB images on 08 and 09 December [click to enlarge]

In spite of afternoon temperatures rising into the 50s and 60s F over surrounding bare-ground areas, a 08 December vs 09 December comparison of NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color RGB images (above) showed that the core of the residual snow cover remained intact — especially over Oklahoma — with minimal melting between the 2 days.

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Power Plant plume in West Virginia

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Nighttime Microphysics Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (above) showed the signature of a power plant plume moving southeastward across West Virginia after sunset on 07 December 2020. The likely source of this plume was the Gavin Power Plant, located about 10 miles north-northeast of Gallipolis, Ohio. The power plant exhaust plume was composed of water... Read More

GOES-16 Nighttime Microphysics RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Nighttime Microphysics RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Nighttime Microphysics Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (above) showed the signature of a power plant plume moving southeastward across West Virginia after sunset on 07 December 2020. The likely source of this plume was the Gavin Power Plant, located about 10 miles north-northeast of Gallipolis, Ohio. The power plant exhaust plume was composed of water droplets that were smaller then those of the surrounding stratus cloud layer — differences in droplet size emissivity were highlighted by this RGB combination. The plume eventually moved across the West Virginia / Virginia border around 03 UTC.

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Signatures of the Alaska Range on Water Vapor imagery

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17 (GOES-West) Low-level (7.3 µm), Mid-level (6.9 µm) and Upper-level (6.2 µm) Water Vapor images (above) revealed cold thermal signatures (brighter shades of white) associated with the highest-elevation portions of the Alaska Range on 05 December 2020. Note the slight northward shift (16-20 km, or 10-12 miles) in the apparent location of Denali... Read More

GOES-17 Low-level (7.3 µm), Mid-level (6.9 µm) and Upper-level (6.2 µm) Water Vapor images, with topography [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 Low-level (7.3 µm), Mid-level (6.9 µm) and Upper-level (6.2 µm) Water Vapor images, with topography [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 (GOES-West) Low-level (7.3 µm), Mid-level (6.9 µm) and Upper-level (6.2 µm) Water Vapor images (above) revealed cold thermal signatures (brighter shades of white) associated with the highest-elevation portions of the Alaska Range on 05 December 2020. Note the slight northward shift (16-20 km, or 10-12 miles) in the apparent location of Denali in the GOES-17 images, due to parallax.

Plots of GOES-17 Water Vapor (ABI spectral band 8, 9 and 10) weighting functions calculated using 00 UTC rawinsonde data from Fairbanks (north of the Alaska Range) and from Anchorage (south of the Alaska Range) are shown below. Even with very large satellite viewing angles (or zenith angles) greater than 70 degrees — which would tend to shift the Water Vapor weighting function plots to higher altitudes —  the presence of very dry air within much of the middle to upper troposphere had the effect of bringing the weighting function peaks downward to pressure levels corresponding to those of the higher elevations of the Alaska Range.

GOES-17 Water Vapor weighting functions, calculated using 00 UTC rawinsonde data from Fairbanks [click to enlarge]

GOES-17 Water Vapor weighting functions, calculated using 00 UTC rawinsonde data from Fairbanks [click to enlarge]

GOES-17 Water Vapor weighting functions, calculated using 00 UTC rawinsonde data from Anchorage [click to enlarge]

GOES-17 Water Vapor weighting functions, calculated using 00 UTC rawinsonde data from Anchorage [click to enlarge]

The Total Precipitable Water (TPW) values seen on the 00 UTC Fairbanks and Anchorage soundings were 0.07 inch. However, a NOAA-20 NUCAPS sounding profile just 20-30 miles southwest of Denali around 12 UTC (below) yielded TPW values of only 0.01 inch. The green color of that sounding point indicated successful retrievals from both the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) and Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) instruments.

GOES-17 Water Vapor (6.9 µm) image with plots of available 12 UTC NOAA-20 NUCAPS sounding points [click to enlarge]

GOES-17 Water Vapor (6.9 µm) image, with plots of available 12 UTC NOAA-20 NUCAPS sounding points [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 NUCAPS profile just southwest of Denali around 12 UTC [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 NUCAPS profile just southwest of Denali around 12 UTC [click to enlarge]

Another NOAA-20 NUCAPS green sounding profile just southwest of Denali around 22 UTC (below) also yielded a TPW value of only 0.01 inch.

GOES-17 Water Vapor (6.9 µm) image with plots of available 22 UTC NOAA-20 NUCAPS sounding points [click to enlarge]

GOES-17 Water Vapor (6.9 µm) image, with plots of available 22 UTC NOAA-20 NUCAPS sounding points [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 NUCAPS profile just southwest of Denali around 22 UTC [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 NUCAPS profile just southwest of Denali around 22 UTC [click to enlarge]

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Wildfires in Southern California

By Scott Bachmeier •

As discussed on the Satellite Liaison Blog, wildfires driven by strong Santa Ana winds developed after sunset on 02 December — and 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) displayed the thermal anomalies and smoke plumes associated with larger fires that persisted into the subsequent daytime hours on 03 December 2020.GOES-17... Read More

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

As discussed on the Satellite Liaison Blog, wildfires driven by strong Santa Ana winds developed after sunset on 02 December — and 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) displayed the thermal anomalies and smoke plumes associated with larger fires that persisted into the subsequent daytime hours on 03 December 2020.

GOES-17 True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid (below) showed the offshore transport of wildfire smoke during the day.

GOES-17 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

A before (24 November) / after (03 December) comparison of 30-meter resolution Landsat-8 False Color RGB images viewed using RealEarth (below) revealed the appearance of burn scars (darker shades of brown), active fire fronts (brighter shades of pink) and smoke plumes (shades of gray) associated with the Bond Fire east of Santa Ana and the smaller Airport Fire northwest of Corona.

Landsat-8 False Color images, 24 November vs 03 December 2020 [click to enlarge]

Landsat-8 False Color RGB images, 24 November vs 03 December 2020 [click to enlarge]

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