GOES-16 ABI and GLM data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational and are undergoing testing

Strong morning thunderstorms with a few severe weather reports, and abundant heavy rain (24-h totals ending 1200 UTC on 12 July 2017, from here), spread over the northern part of the GOES-16 default western Mesoscale Sector on the morning of 12 July 2017. The animation above shows the GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) 10.3 µm imagery with Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) Lightning Flash event locations superimposed, at 1-minute timescales. The top of the default Mesoscale Sector cuts through central Wisconsin.

Click here to see a graphic with the GLM Flashes for the 3 different hours.

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A comparison of Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images on 12 July 2017 (above; courtesy of William Straka, SSEC) shows the large iceberg (named A-68) that had separated from the Larsen-C ice shelf in Antarctica (Project MIDAS).

===== 13 July Update =====

A 12 July vs 13 July comparison of VIIRS Infrared Window and Day/Night Band images (below) revealed a slight expansion of the ice fracture, as Iceberg A-68 slowly drifted away from the Larsen-C ice shelf.

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* GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational and are undergoing testing *

Severe thunderstorms developed in the warm sector of a mid-latitude cyclone that was moving eastward along the US/Canada border on 11 July 2017.  GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above) showed the storms that produced tornadoes, wind gusts to 80 mph and hail as large as 2.00 inches (SPC storm reports) across far eastern North Dakota and far northwestern Minnesota (NWS Grand Forks summary). Time-matched SPC storm reports are plotted on the images — the report locations are parallax-corrected to match the location of the cloud-top features. Overshooting tops were very evident on the Visible and Infrared imagery; in addition, pronounced cold/warm Thermal Couplets and/or Enhanced-V signatures were seen in the Infrared images.

Farther to the south, other storms (below) produced hail as large as 3.00 inches and wind gusts to 75 mph across northeastern South Dakota (NWS Aberdeen summary).

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GOES-16 ABI and GLM data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational and are undergoing testing

 

The GOES-16 Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) has achieved Beta Maturity and is being distributed via GOES Rebroadcast (GRB). A release of McIDAS-X slated for September 2017 has a GLM display, prototyped above.  GLM data processing in the Ground System groups lightning flashes from smallest increments (Events), to aggregates of Events (Groups) to aggregates of Groups (Flashes). Thus, Events, as shown above, are on a rectangular grid wherein each gridpoint is a GLM Field of View. Groups are plotted at the centroid of the Events that comprise the Group, and Flashes are plotted as the centroid of the Groups that comprise the Flash. Typically, the number of Events is greater than the number of Groups, which is greater than the number of Flashes.

Convection developing over east-central Illinois and west-central Indiana this morning at 1002 UTC (as depicted by the 10.3 µm imagery, above) was electrically active. Events, Groups and Flashes are shown for 1-minute increments. For this particular (small) increment of time, the large convective complex over central Indiana was electrically quiet.  (Here is an animation that shows a similar scene — but with three events, groups and flashes grouped in 5-minute intervals rather than 1).

Note:  The ‘+’ sign used in the plot does not describe the electrical polarity of the flash;  GLM cannot distinguish positive from negative activity.

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