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Canadian wildfire smoke across the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 (GOES-East) True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images from the AOS site (above) showed the signature of dense smoke from Canadian wildfires that was being transported southward across parts of the Upper Midwest on 06 July 2019. While much of the smoke remained aloft, some of it was reaching the surface... 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 from the AOS site (above) showed the signature of dense smoke from Canadian wildfires that was being transported southward across parts of the Upper Midwest on 06 July 2019. While much of the smoke remained aloft, some of it was reaching the surface and restricting the visibility at locations such as International Falls, Baudette and Thief River Falls in northern Minnesota and Fargo in eastern North Dakota.

On the following day, the smoke settled farther southward over Wisconsin and Michigan (below). Much of the smoke again remained aloft, but continued to persist within the boundary layer at Baudette and International Falls — and it did briefly restrict the surface visibility at Green Bay in northeastern Wisconsin.

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

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

===== 08 July Update =====

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

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

On 08 July the smoke covered much of the Great Lakes and parts of adjacent states (above).

===== 09 July Update =====

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

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

On 09 July, a gradual decreasing trend in the areal coverage and density of smoke over the Great Lakes was seen (above). A Suomi NPP VIIRS True Color RGB image acquired and processed by the CIMSS/SSEC Direct Broadcast ground station (below) showed that some of the smoke had moved over the Mid-Atlantic states and out across the adjacent offshore waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Suomi NPP VIIRS True Color RGB image [click to enlarge]

Suomi NPP VIIRS True Color RGB image [click to enlarge]

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Fire at a Jim Beam bourbon warehouse in Kentucky

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm), Near-Infrared “Cloud Particle Size” (2.24 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) revealed nighttime thermal signatures of a fire at a Jim Beam bourbon warehouse in Versailles, Kentucky on 03 July 2019. The fire reportedly began to burn around 0330 UTC (11:30 PM... Read More

GOES-16 Near-Infrared

GOES-16 Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm, left), Near-Infrared “Cloud Particle Size” (2.24 µm, center) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, right) images – GLM Groups are plotted in red on the 3.9 µm images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm), Near-Infrared “Cloud Particle Size” (2.24 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) revealed nighttime thermal signatures of a fire at a Jim Beam bourbon warehouse in Versailles, Kentucky on 03 July 2019. The fire reportedly began to burn around 0330 UTC (11:30 PM EDT on 02 July); it was thought that the fire may have been started by a lightning strike — and GOES-16 GLM Groups did indeed portray lightning activity associated with thunderstorms that were dissipating over the area around that time.

The nighttime thermal signatures seen on near-infrared 1.61 µm and 2.24 µm images (brighter white pixels) result from the fact that those two ABI spectral bands are located close to the peak emitted radiance of very hot features such as volcanic eruptions or large fires (below).

Plots of Spectral Response Functions for ABI Bands 5, 6 and 7 [click to enlarge]

Plots of Spectral Response Functions for ABI Bands 5, 6 and 7 [click to enlarge]

The fire continued burning during the day — although it was frequently cloudy, the hot 3.9 µm thermal signature (darker red pixels) was apparent through occasional breaks in the cloud cover (below).

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images [click to play animation]

GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images [click to play animation]

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Solar eclipse in the Southern Hemisphere

By Scott Bachmeier •

A total solar eclipse occurred across the southern Pacific Ocean and parts of South America on 02 July 2019 — GOES-17 (GOES-West) “stretched” True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (above) showed the eastward progression of the eclipse shadow.On the view from GOES-16 (GOES-East), the eclipse shadow can be seen beginning to move across... Read More

GOES-17 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

A total solar eclipse occurred across the southern Pacific Ocean and parts of South America on 02 July 2019 — GOES-17 (GOES-West) “stretched” True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (above) showed the eastward progression of the eclipse shadow.

On the view from GOES-16 (GOES-East), the eclipse shadow can be seen beginning to move across South America just before sunset (below). Grayscale GOES-16 Infrared imagery is displayed where there is not enough (or there is no) sunlight to use any of the ABI Visible and Near-Infrared spectral bands for RGB imagery.

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

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

Full Disk GOES-17 and GOES-16 True Color RGB imagery combined and displayed in a Mollweide projection is shown below (courtesy of Rick Kohrs, SSEC).

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Hurricane Barbara in the East Pacific

By Scott Bachmeier •

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above) showed the eye of Category 4 Hurricane Barbara on 02 July 2019. Mesovortices were briefly seen within the eye in the Visible imagery. Barbara was moving through an environment of low deep-layer wind shear and over warm water, factors favorable... Read More

GOES-17

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom) images [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above) showed the eye of Category 4 Hurricane Barbara on 02 July 2019. Mesovortices were briefly seen within the eye in the Visible imagery. Barbara was moving through an environment of low deep-layer wind shear and over warm water, factors favorable for rapid intensification (ADT | SATCON).

DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) imagery from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) showed a closed eyewall at 1448 UTC.

DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) image [click to enlarge]

DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) image [click to enlarge]

A 1700 UTC  GOES-17 “Red” Visible image with an overlay of Metop-A ASCAT winds (below) revealed surface scatterometer wind speeds as high as 76 knots just north of the eye.

GOES-17

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Metop-A ASCAT winds [click to enlarge]

===== 03 July Update =====

GOES-17 "Red" Visible (0.64 µm, top) and "Clean" Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom) images [click to play animation | MP4]

Barbara maintained Category 4 intensity on 03 July — and 1-minute GOES-17 Visible and Infrared GOES-17 images (above) provided a better view of mesovortices within the eye.

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