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Year-long Animations of Visible and Infrared Images

By Scott Lindstrom •

A previous blog post (here) has shown 1-month animations of true-color visible imagery from geostationary satellites (GOES-16, GOES-17, Himawari-8, Meteosat-11 and others) wherein local noon longitudinal strips are blended together to create a global view. (Imagery courtesy Rick Kohrs, SSEC) (See also this blog post for an explanation). The animation above (Click... Read More

True-color visible imagery global montage from 6 March 2019 – 5 March 2020 (Click to launch containerized YouTube Vide)

A previous blog post (here) has shown 1-month animations of true-color visible imagery from geostationary satellites (GOES-16, GOES-17, Himawari-8, Meteosat-11 and others) wherein local noon longitudinal strips are blended together to create a global view. (Imagery courtesy Rick Kohrs, SSEC) (See also this blog post for an explanation). The animation above (Click it to view a YouTube animation within a container) shows visible true-color imagery for each day from 6 March 2019 through 5 March 2020.

The infrared imagery below combines the ‘clean window’ Band 13 channel on GOES-16 and GOES-17 (10.3 µm on both) with Band 13 on Himawari-8 (10.4 µm) and shows 2019 data at 6-h intervals.

Color-enhanced Window Channel infrared (ABI: 10.3 µm; AHI: 10.4 µm) imagery from 2019 (Click to launch containerized YouTube Vide)

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Anomalously-strong jet stream winds over Colorado

By Scott Bachmeier •

An anomalously-strong upper tropospheric jet stream was moving over northern Colorado on 25 March 2020 — GOES-16 (GOES-East) Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with plots of Derived Motion Winds and contours of RUC40 model maximum wind speeds (above) revealed that the highest satellite-tracked Derived Motion Wind speeds just northeast of Grand Junction, Colorado (KGJT)... Read More

GOES-16 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with plots of Derived Motion Winds and contours of RUC40 model maximum wind speeds [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with plots of 6.2 µm Derived Motion Winds and contours of RUC40 model maximum wind speeds [click to play animation | MP4]

An anomalously-strong upper tropospheric jet stream was moving over northern Colorado on 25 March 2020 — GOES-16 (GOES-East) Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with plots of Derived Motion Winds and contours of RUC40 model maximum wind speeds (above) revealed that the highest satellite-tracked Derived Motion Wind speeds just northeast of Grand Junction, Colorado (KGJT) were 165 knots. RUC40 model Maximum Wind Speed values were also around 165 knots across that area. The strongest wind speeds in 00 UTC rawinsonde data from Grand Junction were 160 knots (below).

Plot of rawinsonde data from Grand Junction, Colorado at 00 UTC on 26 March [click to enlarge]

Plot of rawinsonde data from Grand Junction, Colorado at 00 UTC on 26 March [click to enlarge]

The 250 hPa GFS model wind speed anomalies (below) were 3-4 sigma above normal over northern Colorado at 00 UTC on 26 March (source).

250 hPa wind speed anomalies at 00 UTC on 26 March [click to enlarge]

250 hPa wind speed anomalies at 00 UTC on 26 March [click to enlarge]

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Fire activity across southern Mexico

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 um) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 um) images (above) showed smoke plumes and hot thermal signatures associated with wildfires between Pueblo (MMPB) and Veracruz (MMVC) in southern Mexico — smoke from these fire was drifting westward over the Mexico City (MMMX) area.Farther to the east, GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared... Read More

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 um) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 um) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 um) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 um) images (above) showed smoke plumes and hot thermal signatures associated with wildfires between Pueblo (MMPB) and Veracruz (MMVC) in southern Mexico — smoke from these fire was drifting westward over the Mexico City (MMMX) area.

Farther to the east, GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared images (below) displayed the hot thermal signatures of widespread agricultural fires across Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Such fires occur here and over much of Central America as farmers prepare their fields for another round of crop planting.

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 um) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 um) images [click to play animation | MP4]

On a larger scale, GOES-16 True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid (below) revealed the northward transport of smoke across the Gulf of Mexico, which made it as far north as southern Texas by the end of the day.

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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Lake Erie mesovortex, and an undular bore over the Dakotas

By Scott Bachmeier •

Two interesting small-scale features were seen in GOES-16 (GOES-East) imagery on 24 March 2020. First of all, 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed a mesovortex that was migrating west-northwestward across Lake Erie during the day. This feature had a diameter of around 10 miles — such a small-scale circulation was not... Read More

GOES-16

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

Two interesting small-scale features were seen in GOES-16 (GOES-East) imagery on 24 March 2020. First of all, 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed a mesovortex that was migrating west-northwestward across Lake Erie during the day. This feature had a diameter of around 10 miles — such a small-scale circulation was not captured by Metop-A ASCAT surface scatterometer data.

During the preceding overnight hours, an early signature of the mesovortex was evident in Suomi NPP VIIRS Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) and “Fog product” Brightness Temperature Difference (BTD) images at 0806 UTC (below).

Suomi NPP VIIRS Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) and "Fog product" Brightness Temperature Difference (BTD) images [click to enlarge]

Suomi NPP VIIRS Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) and “Fog product” Brightness Temperature Difference (BTD) images [click to enlarge]

The second feature of interest was a pre-cold-frontal undular bore that was moving eastward across the Dakotas, as seen in Day Cloud Phase Distinction Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (below).

GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

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