An AWIPS screen capture showing GOES-16 (GOES-East) Cloud Top Phase, Near-Infrared “Snow/ice” (1.61 µm), Cloud Phase brightness temperature difference (8.5 µm – 11.2 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images on 28 December 2017 (above) was provided by Dan Baumgardt and Dave Schmidt (NWS La Crosse) — they were inquiring as to the why the 1.61 µm Snow/Ice imagery appeared bright across southern Minnesota (suggesting cloud tops composed primarily of supercooled water droplets), where light snow was being reported at a number of locations. Note that the Cloud Top Phase product also indicated that much of the stratus cloud deck over that same region was either Supercooled (light green) or Mixed (dark green).

An animation of GOES-16 Snow/Ice (1.61 µm) imagery (below) showed that the high reflectance (brighter white) signature of the lower-altitude stratiform cloud deck persisted across southern Minnesota into western Wisconsin and northern Iowa during the daylight hours, along with widespread surface reports of light snow. In contrast, higher-altitude clouds composed predominantly or entirely of ice crystals exhibited a darker gray appearance (since ice crystals, as well as surface snow cover and frozen lakes/rivers, are strong absorbers of radiation at the 1.61 µm wavelength).

In the corresponding GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) animation (below), much of the aforementioned lower-altitude stratiform cloud layer exhibited cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures in the -10 to -20 ºC range across far southern Minnesota into northern Iowa, with colder -20 to -30 ºC values seen in the more northern and eastern portion of the stratus cloud.

Plots of rawinsonde data (at 12 UTC on 28 December) from Aberdeen, South Dakota and Chanhassen, Minnesota (below) showed that the temperature profiles within the low-altitude cloud layers were close to isothermal, with air temperatures generally in the -16 to -22 ºC range.

So how could snow be falling from stratus clouds whose tops appeared be be composed of supercooled water droplets? A journal article titled “Vertical Motions in Arctic Mixed-Phase Stratiform Clouds” demonstrated that in-cloud glaciation can and does occur below the supercooled liquid cloud top in an arctic air mass. This example certainly shows that in an arctic air mass, mixed/supercooled cloud above snow or ice cloud is possible, particularly in temperatures between -20 ºC and -30 ºC — and cloud phase classification for operational decisions must sometimes look beyond the examination of single-band satellite imagery (or even derived products such as Cloud Phase).

Thanks to Mike Pavolonis (NOAA/NESDIS/CIMSS) and Jordan Gerth (CIMSS) for their insightful explanations regarding cloud phase — and thanks to the NWS La Crosse staff for bringing this interesting case to our attention!

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GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images centered over Lake Erie (above) showed the evolution of lake effect snow bands on 25 December – 26 December 2017, which produced very heavy snowfall at locations such as Erie, Pennsylvania (station identifier KERI); a Mesoscale Sector provided images at 1-minute intervals. Some noteworthy snowfall records were set at Erie PA:

With an additional 3.5″ of snow at the Erie, PA airport as of 5PM, this brings the two day (12/25-26) total up to 58″ and the storm total (From 7PM Christmas Eve thru 5PM 12/26) up to 60.0″. Heavy snow continues to fall. Here is a look at some of the records. #pawx pic.twitter.com/BN5txOpByZ

— NWS Cleveland (@NWSCLE) December 26, 2017

(27 December Update: additional lake effect snow at Erie on 27 December brought the final storm total accumulation to 65.1 inches: NWS Cleveland summary. NOHRSC plots showed a maximum snow depth of 49 inches just southwest of downtown Erie; the maximum snow depth at Erie International Airport was 28 inches on 26 December, which was still less than their all-time record snow depth of 39 inches on 21 December 1989)

A sequence of Infrared Window images captured by Terra/Aqua MODIS (11.0 µm) and Suomi NPP VIIRS (11.45 µm) is shown below. The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures associated with the dominant lake effect snow bands were in the -30 to -35 ºC range (dark blue to pale green color enhancement), similar to what was seen in the GOES-16 Infrared Window imagery.

Farther to the northeast, these Lake Erie lake effect bands also produced significant snowfall in far southwestern New York, with 32 inches reported at Perrysburg (located 20 miles west of Dunkirk, station identifier KDKK). In addition, lake effect snow bands over Lake Ontario were responsible for even higher snowfall amounts:

Updated storm total snowfall for:
Perrysburg off of Lake Erie = 32.0″
8 N Redfield off of Lake Ontario = 56.9″ pic.twitter.com/3cngvFZRR7

— NWS Buffalo (@NWSBUFFALO) December 26, 2017

1-minute GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (below) showed the lake effect snow bands over Lake Ontario on 26 December.

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GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images (above) revealed signatures of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch at 01:27 UTC on 23 December 2017 (5:27 PM Pacific time on 22 December). The arrows on the 01:27:24 UTC images indicate the bright pixels on the 0.64 µm and 1.61 µm images, as well as the warm thermal anomaly (black pixels) on the 3.9 µm image. GOES-16 was scanning that exact location at 01:28:01 UTC.

The GOES-16 Shortwave Infrared signature was noted by a couple of NWS offices:

It looks like #GOESEast (#GOES16) captured the rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base earlier this evening. It shows up as a “hot spot” on the 3.90 micron channel. pic.twitter.com/fstHI89SKv

— NWS La Crosse (@NWSLaCrosse) December 23, 2017

GOES16 Satellite imagery in the 3.9 micron band (infrared) easily detected the lauch of the #SpaceX satellite from Vandenberg AFB. Although imaged at 5 min intervals, GOES16 just happened to image right after launch. Note area orange and yellow west of the coast line. #cawx pic.twitter.com/qxf77jbhGj

— NWS Hanford (@NWSHanford) December 23, 2017

Signatures of another SpaceX rocket launch in Florida were captured by GOES-16 on 16 March 2017.

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A toggle between 250-meter resolution Terra MODIS True-color and False-color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images from the MODIS Today site (above) revealed numerous aircraft “hole punch” and dissipation trail or “distrail” features over Illinois, Indiana and Ohio on 21 December 2017.  These cloud features were caused by aircraft that were either ascending or descending through a layer of cloud composed of supercooled water droplets — cooling from wake turbulence (reference) and/or particles from the jet engine exhaust acting as ice condensation nuclei causes the small supercooled water droplets to turn into larger ice crystals (many of which then fall from the cloud layer, creating “fall streak holes“). The ice crystal clouds appear as darker shades of cyan on the false-color image.

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images showed the hole punch and distrail features over Illinois/Indiana (above) and over Indiana/Ohio (below). The glaciated (ice crystal) hole punch and distrail clouds appeared dark gray on the Snow/Ice images (since ice is a strong absorber of radiation at the 1.61 µm wavelength).

RealEarth is used to display Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm), Near-Infrared (1.61 µm), True-color and False-color RGB images at 1841 UTC (below). O ne the Shortwave Infrared images, the hole punch and distrail features are colder (brighter white) than the surrounding supercooled water droplet cloud deck — since water droplet are effective absorbers of incoming solar radiation, such clouds appear warmer (darker gray) in 3.9 µm images.

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