The tropical system in the southern Gulf of Mexico that owes part of its genesis to Eastern Pacific Tropical Cyclone Amanda has been named tropical storm Cristobal, the third named storm of the Atlantic Season.  Day Night band imagery from Suomi NPP, shown above from 0753 UTC on 2 June 2020 (when the system was still an un-named depression), shows abundant strong convection over and adjacent to the Yucatan Peninsula and in the Bay of Campeche.  The western edges of clouds were very well-illuminated because the >80% Full Moon was setting and approaching the western horizon;  moonset at New Orleans’ longitude on 2 June was shortly after 3:30 AM (i.e., 0830 UTC).  Lights from cities surrounding the Gulf and from Oil platforms within the Bay of Campeche are also apparent.

The Advanced Clear-Sky Processor for Oceans (ACSPO) Sea-Surface Temperature field (this VIIRS-based field is available in AWIPS via an LDM feed from CIMSS) shows few pixels of information because of the extensive cloud shield.  However, the pixels that do show through the clouds reveal SSTs between 82 and 84º F.

The storm is just south of a region of strong shear, as shown below (source) and over very warm waters (albeit close to land) and slow strengthening is forecast as it drifts northward in the next days (interests along the Gulf Coast should pay special attention to this system;  refer to the National Hurricane Center for more information).

GOES-16 Atmospheric Motion Vectors (below, from 350-450 mb in red, and from 775-900 mb in lavender) also suggest shear over the central Gulf of Mexico.

The Air Mass RGB animation, below, shows Cristobal’s convection developing within a moisture-rich tropical airmass characterized by green shading in the RGB. Dry air — orange and red in the RGB — is present just west of the storm.

The dry air is even more obvious in the toggle below of the Air Mass RGB and the Low-Level water vapor imagery (Band 10, 7.34 ) at 1626 UTC on 2 June.  Color enhancements of yellow and orange over Texas and Mexico suggest dry air in the mid-troposphere.

For more information on this storm, refer to the National Hurricane Center, the CIMSS Tropical Weather Page, or your favorite Tropical Weather site.

The (mp4) video below, generated by CSPP-Geo and from an experimental CIMSS website, shows Cristobal in True Color from GOES-16.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed thunderstorms developing across Interior Alaska and the Seward Peninsula on 01 June 2020. The high satellite viewing angle — 73.6 degrees at Fairbanks — helped to accentuate the rapid ascent/collapse of updrafts in developing thunderstorms.

The corresponding GOES-17 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (below) revealed cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures in the -55 to -59ºC range (brighter shades of yellow).

Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 2123 UTC and 2306 UTC (below) provided a higher-resolution view of the thunderstorms. Cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were as cold as -65ºC (darker shades of red) at 2306 UTC.

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SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1922 UTC on 30 May 2020. 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) Lower-level (7.3 µm), Mid-level (6.9 µm) and Upper-level (6.2 µm) Water Vapor images (above) showed the thermal signature of hot combustion byproducts (water vapor and carbon dioxide) in the wake of the Falcon 9 booster engines.

A larger-scale view of GOES-16 Upper-level (6.2 µm) Water Vapor images (below) revealed a signature of the Stage 1 rocket re-entry burn farther offshore at 1930 UTC (the 1930 UTC image was from the other GOES-16 Mesoscale Domain Sector, which was positioned farther north).

A thermal signature was also seen in GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared imagery (3.9 µm) imagery (above); a separate Shortwave Infrared animation with a different color enhancement is shown below. Note the initial appearance of a hot pixel over the launch site on the 19:22:50 UTC image, which was scanning that particular location at 19:23:20 UTC (shortly after the 19:22 UTC launch time).

GOES-16 True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid are shown below — the rocket booster condensation cloud can be seen near the center of the images, beginning as a short linear feature then morphing into a more diffuse C-shaped feature as it drifted slowly eastward over the Atlantic Ocean.

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An ABI hot (bright) spot is not a fire when it’s a fleet of solar farms. For example, recall the CIMSS Satellite Blog entry regarding solar farms in California. 

Note how some reflections are so bright that the ABI reports dark surrounding pixels. This is part of the remapping process from detector to pixel space. 

 

From left to right, top to bottom the panels are:
1) ABI band 2 reflectance, dynamically scaled to enhance contrast (will appear to flicker)
2) ABI band 5 reflectance, dynamically scaled to enhance contrast (will appear to flicker)
3) ABI band 6 reflectance, dynamically scaled to enhance contrast (will appear to flicker)
4) ABI band 7 brightness temperature, dynamically scaled to enhance contrast (will appear to flicker)
5) ABI band 7 minus band 14 brightness temperature. Red indicates positive values (extra thermal energy due to the sun and fires, if present), dynamically scaled to enhance contrast (will appear to flicker)
6) ABI band 14 brightness temperature, dynamically scaled to enhance contrast (will appear to flicker)
7) ABI Fire Detection and Characterization Algorithm (FDCA, aka WFABBA) fire detection metadata mask.  Fires are red, orange, magenta, and shades of blue indicating different confidence levels.  Green indicates fire-free land, shades of gray indicate clouds, dark  blue indicates water.
8) Radiance difference of band 7 minus band 14 radiance in band 7 space.  Red indicates positive values (extra thermal energy due to the sun and fires, if present), dynamically scaled to enhance contrast (will appear to flicker)
9) Radiance difference of band 7 minus band 14 radiance in band 7 space minus a rolling average of the 5 prior frames, to highlight changes. Red indicates positive values (extra thermal energy due to the sun and fires, if present), dynamically scaled to enhance contrast (will appear to flicker).

Aside from the solar farms, water clouds show up in the difference panels due to their reflection of shortwave radiation. 

H/T to Chris Schmidt for the 9-panel ABI imagery.  More about quantitative ABI products, including fire detection. 

The original tweet from the La Crosse WFO: “We saw some awfully bright looking “clouds” showing up via satellite in southeast Minnesota earlier this afternoon. Well after some investigation, we were able to determine they were actually solar panel arrays that the sun was hitting just right!”

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