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

As noted on the Satellite Liaison Blog, an outbreak of severe thunderstorms developed over parts of Oklahoma and Texas on 26 March 2017. A GOES-16 Mesoscale Sector positioned over that region provided 1-minute data — and 0.5-km resolution Visible (0.64 µm) images (above; also available as a 114-Mbyte animated GIF) showed the formation of storms that produced hail (as large as 3.25 inches in diameter, at 0043 UTC) and one tornado (at 0018 UTC) in eastern Oklahoma during the 2000 to 0045 UTC time period. SPC storm reports are plotted in red — their locations have been parallax-corrected, assuming a cloud top height of 11 km. Both of the aforementioned large hail and tornado events occurred  during the 30-minute gap in operational GOES-13 (GOES-East)  imagery from 0015 to 0045 UTC, when that satellite was executing New Day Schedule Transition and Southern Hemisphere scan duties.

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The Kambalny volcano in far southern Kamchatka, Russia erupted around 2120 UTC on 24 March 2017. A Himawari-8 “Target Sector” was positioned over that region — providing rapid-scan (2.5-minute interval) imagery — as seen in a 2-panel comparison of AHI Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (10.4 µm) data covering the first 7 hours of the eruption (above). Ash plume infrared brightness temperatures quickly became -40ºC and colder (bright green enhancement).

Himawari-8 false-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) images from the NOAA/CIMSS Volcanic Cloud Monitoring site (above) showed the ash plume drifting south-southwestward during the subsequent nighttime hours. It is interesting to note the formation and subsequent northwestward motion of numerous contrails (darker green linear features) across the region, due to the close proximity of a major Tokyo flight corridor.

True-color RGB images from Terra MODIS, Suomi NPP VIIRS and Aqua MODIS, viewed using RealEarth (below) revealed the long ash plume during the late morning and early afternoon on 25 March. The dark signature of ash fall onto the snow-covered terrain was evident on the Terra and Aqua images, just west of the high-altitude ash plume.

26 March Update: a closer view of Terra MODIS true-color images from 25 and 26 March (below) showed that the perimeter of the darker gray surface ash fall signature had fanned out in both the west and east directions.

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GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational data that are undergoing testing.

The visible animation from late afternoon over west Texas, above, shows a characteristic signature of a shroud of dust around El Paso, TX behind a dryline associated with a developing cyclone in the lee of the Rocky Mountains. This pall of dust was visible in many of the 16 channels on the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) that sits on GOES-16. The toggle below cycles through the Red visible (0.64 µm), the Blue visible (0.47 µm), the Cirrus channel (1.38 µm), the Snow/ice channel (1.61 µm) and the Upper-Level and Lower-Level water vapor channels (6.19 µm and 7.34 µm, respectively) (Click here for a faster image toggle). In  addition, a 2-panel comparison of GOES-16 Visible and Cirrus band imagery is available here.

Several aspects of the toggle above bear comment. Note that the blue channel (0.47 µm) has in general a ‘hazier’ appearance than the 0.64 µm red channel. Atmospheric scattering is more important at shorter wavelengths, and that is picked up by the satellite. The 1.38 µm ‘Cirrus’ Channel generally does not see the surface because of water vapor absorption at that wavelength. However, the atmosphere behind the dry line is sufficiently parched (total Precipitable Water in the El Paso sounding on 0000 UTC 24 March is less than 6 mm; sounding from this site) that complete attenuation by water vapor is not occurring; dust is highly reflective at 1.38 µm and a signal becomes apparent in the dry air from west Texas southwestward into central Mexico.

Thin dust is very difficult to detect in the 1.61 µm snow/ice channel because solar energy at that wavelength reflected from the surface moves unimpeded through thin dust; thus you can generally see the surface in dusty regions in the 1.61 µm channel. On this date the 1.61 µm channel nimbly discriminated between water clouds (over central Mexico) and ice clouds (over much of the rest of the domain, as shown in this toggle between 0.64 µm and 1.61 µm : only the clouds composed of water are reflective (white) in both channels.

The atmosphere was sufficiently dry on this date that the lower-level (7.34 µm) water vapor channel detected surface features (horizontal convective rolls) associated with the blowing dust. (click here for the 6.19 µm image; surface features are not so apparent). Weighting functions computed at those wavelengths show a significant contribution from the surface at 7.4 µm (the red line), and also at 7.0 µm, (the green line), so the mid-level water vapor imagery from GOES-16 likely also shows surface influences); the 6.5 µm weighting function (the blue line) does not extend to the surface (These GOES-13 Sounder Weighting Functions that are similar to those from the GOES-16 ABI are from this site) so it’s unlikely that the 6.19 µm imagery shows surface features.

The GOES-R Website has fact sheets on the 0.47 µm, 0.64 µm, 1.38 µm, 1.61 µm, 6.19 µm and 7.34 µm channels.

Added: The RAMSDIS GOES-16 Loop of the Day from 23 March showed the Dust RGB product.

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GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational data that are undergoing testing.

GOES-16 Visible imagery captured the erosion of near-surface clouds over Ohio on 21 March 2017. A benefit of the routine 5-minute imagery is that it allows better estimates of exactly when the low clouds will clear out. There is ample suggestion in the animation above of the presence of cirrus clouds. The GOES-16 ABI has a channel at 1.38 µm that is specifically designed to detect cirrus clouds because that is a region in the electromagnetic spectrum where strong water vapor absorption occurs. The animation of ‘cirrus channel’ imagery, below, confirms the presence of widespread cirrus clouds.

The MODIS instrument also has a similar near-infrared Cirrus spectral band — and a comparison of Terra MODIS Visible (0.65 µm) and Cirrus (1.375 µm) images at 1601 UTC is shown below.

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