A strong Nor’easter affected much of northeastern portion of the US during 02 March and 03 March 2018. As noted in the previous blog post, the storm produced very strong winds which led to widespread wind damage and power outages. A GOES-16 (GOES-East) Mesoscale Sector was positioned over the storm on 02 March, and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) provided a detailed view of the center of circulation over the western Atlantic.

A 2-day animation of GOES-16 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images (below) showed the evolution of the storm as it moved from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean (surface analyses). A summary of the peak wind gusts and highest snowfall/rainfall totals can be seen here and here.

On 03 March, a vortex was seen to develop in GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, just behind the occluded frontal boundary — about 30 minutes after a burst of stronger northeasterly winds (with speeds as high as 58 knots) was analyzed in that region by the Metop ASCAT instrument.

A signature of this vortex was also evident in GOES-16 Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm) images (below). A toggle between Visible and Water Vapor images at 1605 UTC is available here.

Finally, a NOAA-20 VIIRS True-color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) image centered over Lake Erie at 1839 UTC on 03 March (below) showed the fresh snow cover left by the storm as it moved across the Great Lakes on 02 March. Snow can be seen across parts of Lower Michigan, southern Ontario, northern Ohio, and far northwestern Pennsylvania. NOAA-20 is the first of the JPSS series of satellites (note: the data are still considered preliminary and non-operational as the instruments and products are being evaluated and tested).

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The evolution of a very strong Nor’easter on the East Coast of the United States for the twelve hours ending at ~1800 UTC on 2 March 2018 is shown above. During this time period, the storm produced winds that shut down schools and Government in the Nation’s Capitol (and elsewhere), with High Wind Warnings widespread from North Carolina to Massachusetts (Link, from this site). Significant Coastal Flooding is likely in New England with this storm.

One of the Level 2 Products produced with GOES-R Series Satellite (GOES-16 and soon, GOES-17) data are Derived Motion Wind Vectors at various levels. The images below show winds of up to 70 knots (!!) at or below 900 hPa over the Chesapeake Bay between 1627 and 1657 UTC on 2 March. Observations (bottom) show numerous surface gusts exceeding 50 knots in the region during that time.

 

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The GOES-S satellite was launched (video) from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida at 22:02 UTC on 01 March 2018 — and after a period of post-launch testing and evaluation, it will become the operational GOES-West satellite positioned at 137º West longitude. Signatures of the rocket exhaust condensation plume could be seen using 1-minute Mesoscale Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared “Cirrus” (1.37 µm) images (above). The Cirrus imagery was able to unambiguously track the rocket condensation plume for a longer period of time — while much of it continued to drift eastward, a portion of the plume began to drift westward back toward the launch site (this was also seen in the Visible imagery). The condensation plume was not necessarily composed of ice crystals, but the 1.37 µm spectral band is very effective at detecting features that are efficient scatters of light (such as cirrus ice crystals, small liquid cloud droplets, volcanic ash, blowing dust); since the rocket plume was located in the dry air situated above the moist boundary layer (Cocoa Beach soundings) its detection and motion was not masked by the extensive cumulus clouds closer to the surface.

Warm thermal anomalies from the Atlas V rocket boosters were also evident on GOES-16 Upper-level (6.2 µm), Mid-level (6.9 µm) and Low-level (7.3 µm) Water Vapor images, moving rapidly eastward (below). The cooler signature of the lower-altitude rocket condensation plume was also evident as it slowly drifted offshore just east of the launch site.

While Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) imagery is useful for detection of thermal anomalies associated with wildfires or volcanic eruptions, in this case the warm rocket booster signature (darker gray to black pixels) was much less distinct (using a conventional “hot spot” enhancement) compared to what was seen on the water vapor imagery (below).

A multi-panel animation (below) showed that a signature of the rocket plume and/or the thermal anomaly was seen on all 16 bands of the GOES-16 ABI. Note that a 3.9 µm Shortwave Infrared thermal signature (black pixels) was first seen on the 22:02:00 UTC image (GOES-16 was actually scanning that point at 22:02:30 UTC, just before the rocket reached Mach 1 velocity) —  prior to the condensation cloud plume becoming apparent beginning at 22:03:00.

A 4-panel animation of GOES-16 Water Vapor and Shortwave Infrared images from AWIPS is shown below. With a color enhancement applied to the 3.9 µm Shortwave Infrared images, the thermal anomaly signature — the long streak of high-altitude superheated air from the rocket boosters — was better highlighted on the 22:05 UTC image (compared to the grayscale McIDAS version seen above).

Below is an animation of GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images from AWIPS, providing another view of the rocket condensation plume.

 

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A new RGB has been developed to highlight possible Rocket Plumes from the Advanced Baseline Imagers (ABI) imagery. Many Red-Green-Blue (RGB) composite image recipes can be applied to the GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) ABI data. Owing to the new spectral bands, finer spatial resolutions and more applications, there are new RGBs to be considered. Many questions should be considered when you develop an RGB: is there an existing RGB that could be used/modified or does a derived product that highlights the feature of interest. Other factors include: spectral bands, band order, bands differences, band ranges, difference ranges, gamma factor, color contrasts, inverting any ranges, etc. The “rocket plume” RGB uses the 3.9, 6.2 and 0.64 (or 1.6 during the night) micrometer bands. A “quick guide” has been generated to summary this RGB. To simplify any operational use, the “daytime” rocket plume RGB can be used both during the day and night. The main use of this RGB is for a quick-look or situational awareness. While most users will not need to develop their own RGB, understanding the process makes it easier for users of existing RGBs to appreciate what an RGB is and is not. Thanks to Bill Line, there’s AWIPS — Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (xml) code to display this RGB.

Examples (in reverse chronically order)

Test engine burn

The above case was a core stage test rocket burn near Stennis Space Center for a NASA SLS rocket. This was a “test of only the core stage which burns LH2 and LOX making lots of water vapor, and the test remained on the earth surface, and it made a very large low altitude water vapor, which was detected by the visible bands.” Note these NASA TV image1, image2, image3 for an SLS event (in September of 2020). This March case only had 5 minute ABI data and the location did not get as hot as an actual rocket launch. A still image from 20:41 UTC shows a very slight blue hint, from the ABI high resolution visible band.

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SpaceX launch of the Sentinel-6 satellite

The SpaceX launch of the Sentinel-6 satellite in November of 2020 from GOES-17. A still image from 17:19 UTC where both the plume and warming can be observed.

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SpaceX crewed mission

The signature of the SpaceX launch of the Dragon crew mission was clearly visible in the rocket plume RGB. The corresponding still image at 00:29 UTC clearly shows two launch signatures.

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Antares rocket launch from Wallops Flight Facility

Antares rocket launch from Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia and the image from 14:02 UTC.

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Vandenberg

A launch from the Vandenberg on May 22, 2018. Still images at 19:47 and 19:52 UTC.

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GOES-S Launch

A CIMSS Satellite Blog post, plus a still image at 22:05 UTC. Note theese meso-scale sectors were a research request.

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SpaceX

This is a GOES-17 example of a SpaceX launch of Spaceflight SSO-A in late 2018. And a still image from 18:35 UTC.

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Credits

NOAA GOES-16 and -17 ABI data are via the University of Wisconsin-Madison SSEC Satellite Data Services. These images were made using the geo2grid software, developed at the UW/SSEC. More GOES-16 and -17 imagery and other information, including the SIFT software developed at UW/SSEC to quickly test RGB changes. Thanks also to Todd Beltracchi and T. Garner and S. Bachmeier for their expertise.

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