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Hurricane Marie in the East Pacific Ocean

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed Category 4 Hurricane Marie over the East Pacific Ocean on 02 October 2020. Although there was frequently some high cloud debris covering the eye, hints of low-altitude mesosvortices within the eye could be seen at times. The coldest cloud-top... Read More

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed Category 4 Hurricane Marie over the East Pacific Ocean on 02 October 2020. Although there was frequently some high cloud debris covering the eye, hints of low-altitude mesosvortices within the eye could be seen at times. The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were in the -85 to -88ºC range.

GOES-17 Infrared Window (11.2 µm) images from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) indicated that Marie was moving through an environment of relatively low deep-layer wind shear.

GOES-17 Infrared Window (11.2 µm) images, with an overlay of deep-layer wind shear [click to enlarge]

GOES-17 Infrared Window (11.2 µm) images, with an overlay of deep-layer wind shear [click to enlarge]

===== 03 October Update =====

A toggle between time-matched Infrared Window images of the eye and eyewall region of Hurricane Marie from Suomi NPP (SNPP) and GOES-17 (below) highlighted the differences in spatial resolution — 375-m with SNPP VIIRS, vs 2-km (at satellite sub-point) with GOES-17 ABI — and the parallax displacement inherent with GOES-17 imagery at that location (approximately 9 km to the northeast). The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature was -85.4ºC on the SNPP image, compared to -81.8ºC on the GOES-17 image; small-scale features such as the gravity waves propagating radially outward from the eye were seen in the higher resolution SNPP image. Note: the 0929 UTC time stamp on the SNPP image was the time that the ground station antenna began receiving the descending overpass signal – the satellite actually passed over Marie’s location at 0943 UTC.

Infrared Window images from Suomi NPP (11.45 µm) and GOES-17 (10.35 µm) [click to enlarge]

Infrared Window images from Suomi NPP (11.45 µm) and GOES-17 (10.35 µm) [click to enlarge]

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Wildfire smoke in Colorado

GOES-16 (GOES-East) True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid (above) showed plumes of smoke drifting across parts of Colorado on 30 September 2020. The most smoke prominent plume originated from the Mullen Fire in far southern Wyoming — which produced a pyroCb cloud on 19 September.On the following morning, the hazy signature of... Read More

GOES-16 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid (above) showed plumes of smoke drifting across parts of Colorado on 30 September 2020. The most smoke prominent plume originated from the Mullen Fire in far southern Wyoming — which produced a pyroCb cloud on 19 September.

On the following morning, the hazy signature of low-altitude smoke that had settled overnight into the North Park and Middle Park plateau areas of north-central Colorado was evident in CIMSS Natural Color RGB images (below). During the morning hours, this smoke restricted the surface visibility to 1-3/4 mile at Walden and 5 miles at Kremmling, before gradually beginning to disperse in the afternoon hours.

CIMSS Natural Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

CIMSS Natural Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

The signature of North Park and Middle Park plateau smoke was more vivid using GOES-16 True Color imagery which includes a correction for Rayleigh scattering (below).

GOES-16 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

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ACSPO Sea Surface Temperatures along the northern Gulf Coast

NOAA-20 overflew a mostly clear northern Gulf of Mexico shortly after 1900 UTC on 1 October. Advanced Clear-Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) sea-surface temperatures, shown above, were derived by CSPP (the Community Satellite Processing Package) using Direct Broadcast data at CIMSS (Training for Direct Broadcast data is available here). The AWIPS-ready datafiles are... Read More

ACSPO Sea Surface Temperatures derived from NOAA-20 VIIRS imagery, 1856 UTC on 1 October 2020 (Click to enlarge)

NOAA-20 overflew a mostly clear northern Gulf of Mexico shortly after 1900 UTC on 1 October. Advanced Clear-Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) sea-surface temperatures, shown above, were derived by CSPP (the Community Satellite Processing Package) using Direct Broadcast data at CIMSS (Training for Direct Broadcast data is available here). The AWIPS-ready datafiles are available via an LDM pull to forecast offices.

Near-shore Sea-Surface temperatures have cooled to around 80. The default enhancement used in AWIPS has been narrowed to show temperatures only from 68ºF to 90ºF. Warmer offshore waters are present, but cloudiness over the central Gulf prevented SST detection. The warmest waters in the scene are in Lake Maurepas in Louisiana, and in various bays (Mobile, Perdido, Pensacola). A zoomed-in scene is shown below. Because this product uses the I-Bands on VIIRS, it has extraordinary horizontal resolution.

ACSPO SSTs over the near-shore waters of the north-central Gulf of Mexico, 1856 UTC on 1 October 2020 (Click to enlarge)

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VIIRS views of the surface and atmosphere, late September 2020 version

VIIRS True-Color imagery taken from the VIIRS Today website, above, shows the reddening/yellowing of trees over the upper midwest between 2 September and 22 September 2020. The inexorable slip into autumn and winter is ongoing.Early in the morning on 24 September, Direct Broadcast NOAA-20 data downloaded at CIMSS and processed with CSPP showed an extensive... Read More

VIIRS True-Color imagery on 02 and 22 September 2020 (Click to enlarge). Data from the VIIRS Today website

VIIRS True-Color imagery taken from the VIIRS Today website, above, shows the reddening/yellowing of trees over the upper midwest between 2 September and 22 September 2020. The inexorable slip into autumn and winter is ongoing.

Early in the morning on 24 September, Direct Broadcast NOAA-20 data downloaded at CIMSS and processed with CSPP showed an extensive aurora over much of Canada. (These data are available from the Direct Broadcast ftp site: link; direct link to the NOAA-20 data used below: link — note that this direct link is ephemeral and will disappear after about a week). The Day Night Band imagery is toggled with 11.45 µm infrared imagery.

NOAA-20 remapped VIIRS Day Night Band visible (0.7 µm) imagery and infrared 11.45 µm imagery, 0804 UTC on 24 September 2020

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