Overlapping 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sectors provided 30-second images from all 16 ABI spectral bands of GOES-16 (GOES-East) — which showed signatures of the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (carrying the Crew Dragon mission) shortly after sunset on 15 November 2020 (above). Moving rapidly northeastward was the thermal signature of air that was super-heated by the rocket exhaust, evident in all of the Near-Infrared bands (3-6) and Infrared bands (7-16) — in addition to a separate signature of the low-altitude booster rocket condensation cloud that was seen in all of the Infrared bands (drifting slowly eastward offshore, away from the launch site).

Even though a dim signature was not obvious in the Visible bands (1, 2), AWIPS cursor sampling of reflectance values from GOES-16 Bands 1, 2 and 3 at 0027 UTC (below) revealed small values (0.1%) for those two spectral bands at the location of the brightest Band 3 pixel (near the launch site).

In a zoomed-in comparison of GOES-16 Visible and Near-Infrared spectral bands (below), a special enhancement was used to enhance reflectance — obvious rocket booster signatures were apparent in the Near-Infrared bands (3-6), and a small bright pixel was even seen in the Band 2 Visible imagery during the ~1.5 minutes following the 0027 UTC launch.

A 16-panel display of all GOES-16 ABI spectral bands from 0026-0031 UTC is shown below.

A GOES-17 (GOES-West) Mesoscale Sector was also positioned over the launch area — in a comparison of 1-minute GOES-17 and 30-second GOES-16 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (below), the rocket booster engine thermal signature was prominent during the first 2 minutes post-launch. The images are displayed in the native projection of each satellite.

Larger-scale views of Shortwave Infrared and Water Vapor images from GOES-16 and GOES-17 are shown below (credit: Tim Schmit, NOAA/NESDIS/CIMSS @GOESguy).

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Iota intensified to a Category 1 hurricane at 0600 UTC on 15 November 2020 — 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East)  “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) and Mid-level (6.9 µm) Water Vapor images (above) showed that the interior structure of the tropical cyclone improved during the day.

GOES-16 Longwave Infrared (11.2 µm) images, with contours of 02 UTC deep-layer wind shear from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below)showed that the hurricane was moving through an environment of low southwesterly shear, which favored intensification.

===== 16 November Update =====

Iota rapidly intensified to a Category 5 storm as of 15 UTC on 16 November (ADT | SATCON). 1-minute GOES-16 Visible and Infrared images from sunrise to sunset are shown above; mesovortices were seen within the eye of the hurricane. Iota had been moving over warm water having  Sea Surface Temperature values of 29-30ºC, which was favorable for intensification.

After sunset, Hurricane Iota eventually made landfall along the coast of Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm at 0340 UTC on 17 November — GOES-16 Infrared images (above) indicated an eye structure that was deteriorating and becoming more cloud-filled as the hurricane approached the coast.

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With the help of a relatively low sun angle, 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) revealed long shadows cast by peaks of the Alaska Range — especially that of Denali, located in the lower center of the satellite scene — upon the tops of stratus clouds to the north on 14 November 2020. The stratus layer was producing snow at the Minchumina Airport during the day, which in tandem with fog was reducing the surface visibility to 1 mile at 20 UTC.

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Himawari-8 “Target” infrared imagery at 10.41 µm (above) and 7.35 µm (below) (courtesy JMA, the Japanese Meteorological Agency) show Typhoon Vamco as it crossed the South China Sea on 13 November, approaching Vietnam. Strong convection develops frequently in the region surrounding the not-quite-circular eye (click here for an mp4 animation), and dry air is far removed from the center, based on the low-level water vapor imagery below (click here for an mp4 animation), although it is wrapping around the southern half of the storm by the end of the animation.  (Click here for more information on Vamco from JMA).

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water fields (from this site), below, show that Vamco is preceded by relatively dry air that appears to be wrapping closer and closer to the storm (The storm is however followed by abundant moisture).  Dry air and relatively cool sea-surface temperatures (from this site) may be the reason that weakening is forecast before landfall.  Shear values remain low but are forecast to become less favorable.

For more information on Vamco, refer the SSEC Tropical Page, the JTWC or to JMA.

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