US Space Force EWS-G1 Visible (0.63 µm) images (above) showed Category 2 Cyclone Gati as it made landfall along the east coast of Somalia on 22 November 2020. The tropical cyclone rapidly intensified (ADT | SATCON) as it moved westward across the North Indian Ocean (through a corridor of low wind shear).

EWS-G1 Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images (below) revealed cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures in the -70 to -80ºC range as the eye was forming after 02 UTC. The eye of Gati opened quickly, but then collapsed and became cloud-filled shortly before landfall. It bears mentioning that in the historical record there are no tropical cyclones of Hurricane intensity making landfall in Somalia.

A similar loop of #CycloneGati, but from the US Space Force EWS-G1 (Electro-optical #Infrared Weather System Geostationary), infrared window animation: https://t.co/qVrtpn7Yk4 H/T @UWSSEC @UWCIMSS https://t.co/R4ypVZuK2m pic.twitter.com/EBET0EhVHs

— Tim Schmit (@GOESguy) November 23, 2020

EWS-G1 Water Vapor (6.5 µm) images (below) also showed the apparent merger of 2 convective clusters — in addition to their brief Fujiwhara-type rotation — prior to Gati’s intensification and the formation of an eye.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector images from all 16 ABI spectral bands of GOES-17 (GOES-West) showed signatures of the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (carrying the Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich satellite) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on 21 November 2020. During the first few minutes post-launch, arcing rapidly northeastward then eastward was the thermal signature of air that was superheated by the rocket exhaust, evident in all of the Near-Infrared bands (3-6) and most of the Infrared bands (7-15) — in addition to a separate signature of the low/mid-altitude booster rocket condensation cloud that was seen in all of the Infrared bands (drifting more slowly eastward, away from the launch site).

A 16-panel display of all GOES-17 ABI spectral bands during the first 11 minutes after launch is shown below.

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GOES-16 Mesoscale Sector 1 imagery, in its default position over the metropolitan New York City aviation hub, also views western New York. It was therefore able to view the beginning of a large fire at a cardboard container recycling and manufacturing facility in Niagara Falls (Youtube link) on 20 November 2020. GOES-16 Band 7 shortwave infrared (3.9 µm) imagery, above, first detected the fire hot spot at about 1441 UTC, or 9:41 AM EST (It becomes visually apparent in the imagery at about 1447 UTC). GOES-16 continued to observe the fire until clouds moved into the area around 1600 UTC, or 11 AM EST, as shown in the Fire RGB animation, below, from 1430 – 1630 UTC, and in this visible imagery animation. (Click here to view the Band 7 (3.9 µm) animation from 1430 – 1630)

The warmest GOES-16 Band 7 (3.9 µm) pixel temperature occurred at 1512 UTC: 53.5ºC. Click here to see the image; (here’s the Fire RGB for that time).

Radar observed the fire’s plume (link from 1550 UTC, courtesy Michael Fries, NWS BUF). Thanks also to Michael for alerting us to this event.

A thin veil of clouds had overspread the area by 1737 UTC — but in a time-matched comparison of Shortwave Infrared images from #SuomiNPP and #GOES16, the superior 375-meter spatial resolution of VIIRS imagery still detected a thermal signature of 51.8ºC: https://t.co/CF999nV7HV pic.twitter.com/ndZrAHFID9

— Scott Bachmeier (@CIMSS_Satellite) November 21, 2020

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GOES-17 (GOES-West) True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid (above) showed the offshore transport of glacial silt across the Gulf of Alaska during the 17-18 November 2020 period. A strong pressure gradient between an inland dome of high pressure and a low pressure system off the coast of British Columbia (surface analyses) forced strong gap winds that accelerated down glacial valleys — lofting the glacial silt from the surface and carrying it off the coast. The most notable plume on both days was streaming out of the Copper River Valley.

Metop-A ASCAT surface scatterometer winds from this site (below) revealed wind speeds in the 30-40 knot range exiting the coast of the northern Alaska Panhandle at 0536 UTC on 18 November.

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