CIMSS Satellite Blog, CIMSS

Heavy rainfall across Interior Alaska

By Scott Bachmeier • 2 August 2020

An animation of Topography + GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed a southward-moving band of clouds responsible for producing heavy rainfall across portions of Interior Alaska on 02 August 2020. Cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were as cold as -58ºC (brighter shades of yellow).GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images... Read More

Topography + GOES-17 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

An animation of Topography + GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed a southward-moving band of clouds responsible for producing heavy rainfall across portions of Interior Alaska on 02 August 2020. Cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were as cold as -58ºC (brighter shades of yellow).

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images are shown below.

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

Blended Total Precipitable Water (TPW) and Percent of Normal TPW images during the 01-02 August time period (below) portrayed TPW values as high as 1.5 inches just north of Lake Minchumina — which was >190% of the normal value for this location and time of year.

Blended TPW and Percent of Normal TPW images [click to play animation | MP4]

A sequence of VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP as viewed using RealEarth (below) revealed cloud-top infrared brightness in the -60 to -65ºC range (darker shades of red) within this cloud band.

VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 ) images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP [click to enlarge]

VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP [click to enlarge]

The deluge is winding down, but this is one for the ages: McKinley River RAWS, about 25 miles SW of Lake Minchumina, has received 4.42" of rain in the past 12 hours. It's very localized, but surely this is the highest 12-hour rain ever in Interior Alaska. #akwx @Climatologist49 pic.twitter.com/5Xy5yhXS7g

— Rick Thoman (@AlaskaWx) August 2, 2020

Rainfall totals for the 24 hours ending 6pm AKDT Sunday. Most of these are not notable for August…except for that “small” area in western Denali Borough which includes probably the highest one-day #rainfall on record in Alaska north of the Alaska Range. #akwx @Climatologist49 pic.twitter.com/RAh3r6Jaht

— Rick Thoman (@AlaskaWx) August 3, 2020

View only this post Read Less

1 week of volcanic cloud emission from Nishioshima

By Scott Bachmeier • 1 August 2020

JMA Himawari-8 Ash Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid (above) displayed the nearly continuous volcanic cloud emanating from Nishinoshima during the 1-week 25 July to 01 August period (faster animations are also available: gif | mp4). Brighter shades of pink in the Ash RGB images suggest a higher concentration of... Read More

Himawari-8 Ash RGB images, from 25 July to 01 August 2020 [click to play animation | MP4]

JMA Himawari-8 Ash Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid (above) displayed the nearly continuous volcanic cloud emanating from Nishinoshima during the 1-week 25 July to 01 August period (faster animations are also available: gif | mp4). Brighter shades of pink in the Ash RGB images suggest a higher concentration of ash within the volcanic cloud. The direction of plume transport switched from northwesterly/westerly to southerly/southeasterly during this time, which is explained by the transition in wind direction within much of the troposphere as revealed by rawinsonde data from nearby Chichijima (below).

Plots of rawinsonde data from Chichijima [click to enlarge]

VIIRS True Color RGB images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP [click to enlarge]

After the transition to southerly transport, VIIRS True Color RGB images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP as visualized using RealEarth (above), the surface visibility at Iwo Jima RJAW dropped to 4 miles on 01 August (below) as the hazy volcanic plume drifted across the area.

Time series plot of surface observation data from Iwo Jima [click to enlarge]

#Nishinoshima is continuously pumping ash into the atmosphere. Here's a CALIOP/MODIS analysis showing the height of part of the plume (~5-6.5 km asl) & an estimate of its fine ash mass (~0.2 Tg). @airesEO @jvernier82 @simoncarn @CIMSS_Satellite @ArnauFolchDuran @DlrSo2 pic.twitter.com/i2pbDaaPSK

— Andy Prata (@andyprata) August 3, 2020

View only this post Read Less

Satellite signatures of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover launch

By Scott Bachmeier • 30 July 2020

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) images from all 16 of the ABI spectral bands (above) revealed a variety of signatures of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the morning of 30 July 2020. Low-level (7.3 µm), Mid-level (6.9 µm) and Upper-level (6.2 µm) Water Vapor images provided the best thermal signature the trail... Read More

GOES-16 images from all 16 ABI spectral bands [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) images from all 16 of the ABI spectral bands (above) revealed a variety of signatures of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the morning of 30 July 2020. Low-level (7.3 µm), Mid-level (6.9 µm) and Upper-level (6.2 µm) Water Vapor images provided the best thermal signature the trail of hot combustion byproducts (water vapor and carbon dioxide) in the wake of the ULA Atlas V rocket booster engines. Closer to the launch site, thermal and reflective signatures of the lower-altitude rocket condensation cloud were seen drifting slowly westward in imagery from all 16 spectral bands.

View only this post Read Less

Potential Tropical Cyclone 9 intensifies to become Tropical Storm Isaias

By Scott Bachmeier • 29 July 2020

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine as it moved northwestward across the Caribbean Sea on 29 July 2020. In Puerto Rico, Luis Muñoz Marin Airport in San Juan (TJSJ) had a wind gust to 44 knots (51 mph) around 19 UTC. Numerous pulsing... Read More

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine as it moved northwestward across the Caribbean Sea on 29 July 2020. In Puerto Rico, Luis Muñoz Marin Airport in San Juan (TJSJ) had a wind gust to 44 knots (51 mph) around 19 UTC. Numerous pulsing overshooting tops were seen, with some exhibiting cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures as cold as -89ºC — according to plots of rawinsonde data from San Juan, Puerto Rico (below), such temperatures were about 10ºC colder than that of the tropopause. Note the significant increase in moisture from the 12 UTC to the 00 UTC soundings, as PTC9 moved closer to Puerto Rico.

Plots of rawinsonde data from San Juan, Puerto Rico [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 Infrared images with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density (below) revealed a modest amount of lightning activity associated with some of the larger clusters of convection.

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density [click to play animation | MP4]

===== 30 July Update =====

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density [click to play animation | MP4]

PTC9 continued to organize and intensify, becoming classified as Tropical Storm Isaias at 0300 UTC on 30 July — GOES-16 Infrared images with an overlay of GLM Flash Extent Density (above) displayed persistent overshooting tops (with brightness temperatures in the -85 to -90ºC range) along with intermittent lightning activity. Several large clusters of thunderstorms produced flash flooding across pars of Puerto Rico.

GOES-16 Visible images (below) showed Isaias just after sunrise.

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

View only this post Read Less

First
Previous
Go to Page:
Next
Last

Heavy rainfall across Interior Alaska

1 week of volcanic cloud emission from Nishioshima

Satellite signatures of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover launch

Potential Tropical Cyclone 9 intensifies to become Tropical Storm Isaias

Search blog

Categories

Authors

Archive

Follow us on