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) .

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).

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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)

.@NWSMilwaukee #GOES16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images provided a nice display of the glaciating cloud tops producing the snow showers, as well as a NW-to-SE oriented band of fresh-but-quickly-melting snow cover (brighter shades of green): https://t.co/1Z94MniHWN #WIwx pic.twitter.com/6jaq92lxkn

— Scott Bachmeier (@CIMSS_Satellite) April 21, 2021

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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).

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.

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.

===== 22 April Update =====

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.

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2.5-minute interval rapid scan JMA Himawari-8 Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above) showed Typhoon Surigae undergoing rapid intensification (ADT | SATCON) to become a Category 4 storm as of 18 UTC on 16 April 2021.

A DMSP-16 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) image from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) displayed a well-defined eye, with distinct spiral bands feeding into the eyewall.

After sunrise, Himawari-8 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (below) showed the relatively compact eye, with hints of low-level mesovortices within the eye.

===== 17 April Update =====

The prolonged period of rapid intensification continued overnight, and as of 12 UTC on 17 April Surigae had become a Category 5 Super Typhoon — 2.5-minute interval rapid scan Himawari-8 Infrared images (above) showed the well-defined eye as the storm tracked northwestward across the Philippine Sea (just east of the Philippines). A faster animation (GIF | MP4) helped to highlight the trochoidal motion (wobble) of the eye — a behavior often seen with intense tropical cyclones. The 21 UTC advisory from JTWC listed sustained winds of 165 knots (and objective intensity estimates from ADT and SATCON were around 170 knots), making Surigae the only tropical cyclone on record to reach that intensity during the month of April.

Year and date of all 165kt tropical cyclones on record around the world. pic.twitter.com/JLUwjceapf

— Sam Lillo (@splillo) April 17, 2021

An animation of Himawari-8 Infrared images with an overlay of deep-layer wind shear (below) indicated that Surigae was moving through a region of low to moderate wind shear; the storm was also moving across very warm water (SST + OHC).

Around the time that Surigae was reaching its peak intensity, a Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) image several hours before sunrise (below) revealed concentric mesospheric airglow waves (reference) propagating away from the energetic Category 5 tropical cyclone.

In closer view of time-matched Himawari-8 Infrared and Suomi NPP Day/Night Band images (below), a cluster of bright DNB pixels highlighted the presence of lightning activity along the inner edge of the northern eyewall.

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