NASA conducted a SLS rocket Green Run Test at Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi on 18 March 2021. The test began at 2037 UTC, with the engine burn lasting about 8 minutes. Signatures of the resulting condensation cloud (brighter shades of white) were evident in GOES-16 (GOES-East) ABI spectral bands 1 (0.47 µm), 2 (0.64 µm), 3 (0.86 µm), 5 (1.61 µm) and 6 (2.24 µm) (above) — and the dark shadow cast by this cloud could be seen in the band 2, 3 ad 5 images. No distinct thermal anomaly was apparent in the band 7 (3.9 µm) images.

Even though the Full Disk GOES-17 (GOES-West) scan interval was limited to every 10 minutes, a condensation cloud signature was captured on the 2040 UTC image (below).

Thanks to Todd Beltracchi (The Aerospace Corporation) for alerting us about this event.

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GOES-16 (GOES-East) Air Mass RGB images (above) showed the darker shades of red associated with dry and ozone-rich air within a lowered tropopause near the core of an upper-level low moving eastward across Oklahoma on 17 March 2021. One sequence of the Air Mass RGB images includes RAP40 model pressure contours of the PV1.5 surface (a representation of the “dynamic tropopause”), which descended to the 700 hPa pressure level — and as this Potential Vorticity (PV) anomaly propagated east toward the Lower Mississippi Valley, it helped to enhance large-scale forcing for ascent and upper-level diffluence across that region. As noted in this blog post, that morning the SPC had issued a High Risk for severe thunderstorms across parts of the Deep South.

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (below) include time-matched plots of SPC Storm Reports that were produced by a number of supercell thunderstorms that developed and moved across across Mississippi and Alabama (where the concentration of tornadoes was highest).

In a time-matched comparison of Infrared images from Suomi NPP (overpass times) and GOES-16 (below), the coldest overshooting top infrared brightness temperatures sensed by the VIIRS instrument on Suomi NPP were about 5-7ºC colder than those from GOES. Note the small northwestward parallax displacement that is inherent with GOES-16 imagery over that region. The same color enhancement is applied to both images.

With a partial overlap of the 2 GOES-16 Mesoscale Domain Sectors, imagery was available at 30-second intervals in the vicinity of the Mississippi/Alabama border; Visible images with time-matched plots of SPC Storm Reports are shown below.

On a side note, strong winds along the rear flank of the surface low in Oklahoma lofted plumes of blowing dust across western Texas — a time-matched comparison of GOES-16 Dust RGB and Suomi NPP VIIRS True Color RGB images at 1921 UTC (below) highlighted the blowing dust features. Animations of GOES-16 Dust RGB images can be seen here: GIF | MP4.

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When NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center issues a High Risk of severe weather (below), people sit up and take notice. Are there easily accessible tools to monitor the state of the atmosphere in/around a region of expected severe weather?

The toggle above shows products (early in the morning on 17 March — at 439 AM CDT) in RealEarth that can help. NOAA-Unique Combines Atmospheric Processing System (NUCAPS)/MADIS (Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System) Lifted Indices combine tropospheric information from NUCAPS profiles with lower-tropospheric/surface information from MADIS to create Lifted Index fields, twice daily. These fields are generated using HEAP (Hyper-spectral Enterprise Algorithm Package) software (incorporated into CSPP — the Community Software Processing Package) at the UW-CIMSS Direct Broadcast site. A Suomi-NPP (or NOAA-20) overpass will quickly yield stability information. Today’s afternoon Suomi-NPP overpasses occurs around 1730 UTC (east of the High Risk area) and 1915 UTC (Link, from this site.) The toggle above also includes GOES-16 Band 13 infrared (Clean Window, 10.3 µm) information, GLM Group Density, and NOAA/CIMSS ProbSevere (ProbSevere has a stand-alone RealEarth-based site here).  All of these products are useful in monitoring this evolving, dangerous event.   As is often the case, the strongest convection was occurring at 0939 UTC along the edges of the most unstable air, that is, in the instability gradient.

People within the region of elevated risk of Severe Weather on 17 March 2021, especially the region High Risk, should pay especial attention to the weather.

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Added: the Geosphere site (link) gives rapid access to GOES-16 imagery (including mesoscale sectors) and can be used to monitor this evolving situation.

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The afternoon image of stability is shown below.

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Himawari-8 Dust RGB imagery, 0000 UTC 13 March 2021 through 2300 UTC 16 March 2021

 

 

 

The BBC reported that Beijing, the Capitol of China, was hit on 15 March by the worst sandstorm in a decade (link).  The linked-to article noted pollution levels 160 times the recommended limit! The dust and sand that overspread the city originated in Mongolia, and the dust RGB animation above (click here for an animated gif), shows dust appearing on 14 March and spreading rapidly southeast behind a propagating extratropical cyclone.  Multiple mid-layer clouds somewhat interfere with the dust/sand detection (bright red/magenta in the dust RGB shown), but the origins in Mongolia after 0600 UTC on 14 March, and the quick spread south by 1800 UTC on 15 March are apparent.

The toggle below compares Himawari-8 true-color imagery and the dust RGB at 0330 UTC on 15 March.  The dust/sand is apparent in the True Color imagery as well as in the RGB.

Himawari-8 imagery is courtesy JMA.  Image processing used Geo2Grid software.  This animation of surface analyses from 13-16 March 2021 (courtesy KMA) was created by Scott Bachmeier.

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