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Tropical Cyclone Jobo makes landfall in Tanzania

US Space Force EWS-G1 Infrared (10.7 µm) images (above) showed Tropical Cyclone Jobo as it moved west-northwestward across the Indian Ocean during the 23-24 April 2021 period, eventually making landfall in Tanzania as a weakening Tropical Depression. Jobo was traversing warm sea surface temperatures during its westward trek.A sequence of VIIRS Infrared Window... Read More

US Space Force EWS-G1 Infrared (10.7 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

US Space Force EWS-G1 Infrared (10.7 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

US Space Force EWS-G1 Infrared (10.7 µm) images (above) showed Tropical Cyclone Jobo as it moved west-northwestward across the Indian Ocean during the 23-24 April 2021 period, eventually making landfall in Tanzania as a weakening Tropical Depression. Jobo was traversing warm sea surface temperatures during its westward trek.

A sequence of VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP as viewed using RealEarth (below) provided higher-resolution views of the various stages of convection associated with Jobo during the 22-24 April period.

VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP [click to enlarge]

VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP [click to enlarge]

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Satellite signatures of the SpaceX/NASA Crew-2 rocket launch

SpaceX and NASA launched the Crew-2 mission (to the International Space Station) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 0949 UTC or 5:49 am EDT on 23 April 2021 — and overlapping Mesoscale Domain Sectors from GOES-16 (GOES-East) provided images at 30-second intervals (above). Reflectance and/or thermal signatures of the Falcon-9 rocket booster were... Read More

GOES-16 images from all 16 ABI spectral bands [click to play animation | MP4

GOES-16 images from all 16 ABI spectral bands [click to play animation | MP4]

SpaceX and NASA launched the Crew-2 mission (to the International Space Station) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 0949 UTC or 5:49 am EDT on 23 April 2021 — and overlapping Mesoscale Domain Sectors from GOES-16 (GOES-East) provided images at 30-second intervals (above). Reflectance and/or thermal signatures of the Falcon-9 rocket booster were seen in 15 of the 16 ABI spectral bands (no signature was evident in Band 1 Visible imagery).

A closer view showed the faint reflectance signature in Band 2 Visible (0.64 µm) images immediately after launch (below) .

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to enlarge]

A Mesoscale Domain Sector from GOES-17 (GOES-West) provided images at 2-minute intervals — thermal signatures from Near-Infrared and Infrared spectral bands (bands 3-16) were seen at 0950 UTC (below).

GOES-17 images from all 16 ABI spectral bands [click to play animation | MP4

GOES-17 images from all 16 ABI spectral bands [click to play animation | MP4]

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Showers over Wisconsin as viewed by GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction and Radar

The animation above toggles through the 1836 UTC GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB with and without a Great Lakes Radar Mosaic of 0.5-degree Reflectivity.  There is an excellent correlation between green-tinted clouds in the RGB (signifying glaciated clouds) and radar echoes, so much so that it should be easy to say that clouds with the same color where radar data are missing,... Read More

GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB with 0.5 Reflectivity (Great Lakes Mosaic), 1836 UTC on 21 April 2021 (Click to enlarge)

The animation above toggles through the 1836 UTC GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB with and without a Great Lakes Radar Mosaic of 0.5-degree Reflectivity.  There is an excellent correlation between green-tinted clouds in the RGB (signifying glaciated clouds) and radar echoes, so much so that it should be easy to say that clouds with the same color where radar data are missing, over north-central Wisconsin and the western Upper Peninsula, are also precipitating.  This relationship between the RGB and radar echoes has been noted before (here, very notably; see Figure 6!), and is most useful in cases of convective development without overlaying cirrus clouds.

(Added: Some of the snow showers in the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin were high-impact, as shown in this video)

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Subtropical Storm Potira off the coast of Brazil

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed the circulation of Subtropical Storm Potira (warning issued by MARINHA) off the southeast coast of Brazil on 20 April 2021.In the corresponding 1-minute GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (below), intermittent convective overshooting tops exhibited infrared brightness temperatures as cold as -60 to -65ºC (shades... 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) showed the circulation of Subtropical Storm Potira (warning issued by MARINHA) off the southeast coast of Brazil on 20 April 2021.

In the corresponding 1-minute GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (below), intermittent convective overshooting tops exhibited infrared brightness temperatures as cold as -60 to -65ºC (shades of orange).

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

Combined plots of all GOES-16 Atmospheric Motion Vector types — Visible, Infrared and Water Vapor — and pressure levels at 15-minute intervals (below) displayed the cloud motions of Potira (credit: Dave Stettner and Chris Velden, CIMSS). The algorithm used to generate these AMVs differs slightly from that used to create operational Derived Motion Winds: some constraints are relaxed/removed, and Visible winds are calculated at pressure levels above 700 hPa — all of which results in the display of a higher density of tracked targets and their calculated wind vectors.

Combined plot of all GOES-16 Atmospheric Motion Vector types (Visible, Infrared and Water Vapor) at 15-minute intervals [click to play animation | MP4]

Combined plots of all GOES-16 Atmospheric Motion Vector types (Visible, Infrared and Water Vapor) and pressure levels, at 15-minute intervals [click to play animation | MP4]

A sequence of EUMETSAT Metop ASCAT surface scatterometer winds (source) is is shown below — the strongest winds were located within the southern sector of the storm, well away from the center of circulation.

Metop ASCAT surface scatterometer winds [click to enlarge]

Metop ASCAT surface scatterometer winds [click to enlarge]

===== 22 April 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]

1-minute GOES-16 Visible images (above) showed that the low-level circulation center of Potira remained exposed on 22 April — while GOES-16 Infrared images (below) indicated that deep convection remained south and west of the storm center.

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

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