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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GOES-17 (GOES-West) Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images revealed ribbons of dry air wrapping around and within the circulation of an occluded Gale Force low (surface analyses) in the Gulf of Alaska on 28 May 2020. In the corresponding Air Mass RGB images, these ribbons of dry air exhibited darker shades of red — caused by higher ozone concentrations aloft due to the dynamic tropopause (represented by the pressure of the PV1.5 surface) descending to the 400-500 hPa pressure level.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed Tropical Storm Bertha as it moved inland across South Carolina on 27 May 2020. The clusters of deep convection rapidly dissipated after landfall, revealing the low-level circulation. Bertha did produce heavy rainfall and high winds.

A GMI Microwave (85 GHz) image at 1416 UTC from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) displayed an arc of moderate to heavy precipitation less than an hour following landfall.

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1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed training and back-building thunderstorms that produced very heavy rainfall and flash flooding across parts of South Florida — particularly in the Miami (KMIA) area — on 26 May 2020. Pulsing overshooting tops were evident, with cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures as cold as -77ºC.

The GOES-16 Total Precipitable Water product (below) revealed clear-sky TPW values as high as 2.2 inches (lighter shades of magenta).

Hourly images of the MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product (below) showed the rich tropical moisture associated with a tropical disturbance that had resided over the region for several days.

 

AMAZING #Miami rainfall!
6.61″ in just over the past 2 hours
7.22″ so far today = 3rd wettest May calendar day
18.70″ so far in May = WETTEST May on record since 1896.
And the training continues across Miami-Dade County. Flash Flood Warning until 9:30 PM. pic.twitter.com/PjTv0V5u1U

— Mike Seidel (@mikeseidel) May 26, 2020

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