GOES-17 is typically operational using Mode 3 Scanning, in which mode Full Disk images are acquired every 15 minutes (in addition to a PACUS sector every 5 minutes and two mesoscale sectors every minute).  NOAA/NESDIS plans a transition to operational Mode 6 scanning at some point in Spring, and testing for that is ongoing.  In Mode 6, Full Disk images are acquired every 10 minutes (while maintaining the 5-minute PACUS imagery and two 1-minute Mesoscale sectors), a Full Disk sequencing that aligns with Himawari-8 Full Disk image acquisition.  This means that stereoscopic views using GOES-17 (overhead at 137.2º W) and Himawari-8 (overhead at 140.8º E) can be created with a 10-minute time step when GOES-17 is in Mode 6 (vs. every 30 minutes when GOES-17 is operating in Mode 3, as shown here).

The stereoscopic animation above shows tropical convection that was trailing western Pacific then-Tropical Storm Wutip (link 1,  link 2 on Typhoon Wutip);  The three-dimensions apparent in the stereoscopic imagery allow for easy identification of vertical shear — over the southwestern corner of the image, for example.

Tropical Storm Wutip was on the extreme limb of GOES-17’s field of view on 20-21 February; nevertheless, data could be used to view the storm, in stereo, with Himawari-8. That animation is shown below.  Wutip is on the western edge of the imagery.

Himawari-8 imagery is courtesy the Japan Meteorological Agency, JMA.

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Stereoscopic views of Visible Imagery (from GOES-16 and GOES-17, above) allow for visualization of three dimensions, as shown in the mp4 animation above (click here for an animated gif of the same scene). The imagery captures multiple cloud layers over the western United States (a map will show up in the animation) as a potent system moved eastward.

GOES-R includes four channels in the near-visible including the Cirrus Channel at 1.37 µm. The Cirrus Channel is useful here because the water vapor absorption of 1.37 µm energy means that any near-surface signal is absorbed, so mostly high-level clouds are present (low clouds become visible in the cirrus channel in very dry atmospheres). The animation below (the animated gif is here) is a stereoscopic view created with 1.37 µm imagery and the structure of the high clouds is more apparent.

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Both GOES-16 (GOES-East) and GOES-17 (GOES-West) were placed into the Mode 6 scan strategy for a 3-day period of testing beginning at 1500 UTC on 19  February 2019 — which provides Full Disk images every 10 minutes (instead of every 15 minutes for the more common Mode 3 scan strategy). Further details on GOES-R series scan modes are available here and here. GOES-16 Full Disk “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images are shown above, with Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images below.

One of the more striking features over the North Atlantic Ocean was a rapidly-intensifying Hurricane Force low — an animation that cycles through GOES-16 Visible and Water Vapor images of this system is displayed below.

GOES-16 Air Mass RGB images from the AOS site (below) exhibited the orange-to-red hues of ozone-rich air within the atmospheric column due to a lowered tropopause associated with the rapidly deepening North Atlantic storm.

Looking to the west with GOES-17, Full Disk animations of Visible and Water Vapor images are shown below.

The more frequent 10-minute images allowed a short-lived signature of orographic waves within a transient dry slot immediately downwind (northeast) of Atka (PAAK) in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska  (below) — such a signature often indicates a high potential of turbulence. There were also areas of transverse banding seen with the jet stream cirrus just southeast of Atka (another satellite signature of turbulence).

Similar to what was seen over the North Atlantic, GOES-17 Air Mass RGB images (below) exhibited the orange-to-red hues of ozone-rich air within the atmospheric column due to a lowered tropopause poleward of the jet stream axis as it moved northeastward across the Aleutians.

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Morphed Total Precipitable Water imagery (from this site) for the 24 hours ending at 0100 UTC on 19 February 2019, above, shows two Tropical disturbances spinning on either side of the Equator. Cyclone Oma in the Southern Hemisphere was northwest of New Caledonia in the Coral Sea. A second disturbance over the north Pacific, albeit very close to the Equator, was near Pohnpei and will pass near Chuuk later this week. Interests in Micronesia should pay attention to this area of disturbed weather.

Himawari-8 Clean Window imagery (10.41 µm) (courtesy JMA), below, shows the better organization of Oma in contrast to the more disorganized nature of the tropical wave over Pohnpei.

Refer to the CIMSS Tropical Webpage (Link) for more information on Oma. The National Weather Service on Guam is issuing statements on the tropical system in Micronesia. (From 0245 UTC on 19 February 2019, for example) (Update: This is now Tropical Depression 02W; a projected path as of 1200 UTC on 19 February is here. The current forecast has this storm achieving typhoon status late Wednesday).

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