GOES-16 Low-Level Water Vapor Infrared (7.34 µm) Imagery, 0737 – 1232 UTC on 7 September 2017 (Click to animate)

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

GOES-16 Captured very strong Hurricane Irma, north of Hispaniola, early on the day on 7 September. The 7.34 µm channel shown is sensitive to water vapor, that is, water vapor in the atmosphere absorbs energy at 7.34 µm. The animation shows the storm moving steadily to the west-northwest. A far less-organized Hurricane Katia is over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, with a strong jet extending from Katia northeastward along the east coast. A short animation of Visible Imagery with Geostationary Lightning Mapper data, below, from 1015-1230 UTC, shows considerable lightning activity continuing in the eye of the storm and in some of the convective bands that surround it.

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) Imagery at 15-minute intervals underneath plots of GLM Group Activity in 3-minute intervals, 1015-1230 UTC 7 September 2017 (Click to animate)

Suomi NPP overflew Irma at about 1800 UTC on 7 September. Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared (11.45 µm) imagery from the VIIRS Instrument on Suomi NPP is below.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) imagery, 1808 UTC on 7 September 2017 (Click to enlarge)

Suomi NPP VIIRS Infrared (11.45 µm) imagery, 1808 UTC on 7 September 2017 (Click to enlarge)

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Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible Imagery (0.64 µm) at 1646 UTC on 6 September 2017, with and without annotation (Click to enlarge)

Suomi NPP overflew Irma as the storm moved through the British Virgin Islands. The toggle above shows the 0.64 µm Visible Image of the storm at that time, with and without annotations.  An infrared view from VIIRS, at 11.45 µm is shown below.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Infrared Imagery (11.45 µm) at 1646 UTC on 6 September 2017, with and without annotation (Click to enlarge)

(Imagery courtesy Will Straka, CIMSS)

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Daily Snapshots of Suomi NPP True Color Imagery overlain with Fire Detection points (in red), from 25 August – 5 September 2017 (Click to animate)

Dry weather over the Pacific Northwest (and over Idaho and Montana) has created an ideal environment lately for wildfires, and much of the region is shrouded in smoke from those fires as shown in the Suomi NPP True Color Imagery, above, from this site.  Note the red points that are Suomi-NPP-detected fires; they persist from day to day, and some grow in size during the course of the animation. GOES-16 Animations of True Color (in this case, the CIMSS Natural True Color product that is created using Bands 1, 2 and 3 (0.47 µm, 0.64 µm and 0.86 µm, respectively)), below, (also available here; a similar product from CIRA is available here), show the pall of smoke as well. Air Quality Alerts from the National Weather Service were widespread on 6 September.

CIMSS Natural True Color, every 15 minutes, from 1400-2130 UTC on 6 September 2017 (Click to animate)

GOES-16 has multiple channels and products that can view both the Smoke and the Fires that produce the smoke. In addition to the visible imagery, Fire Products, below, can characterize the Temperature, Power (in megawatts) and area (in square meters) of the fire detected by GOES-16.  On this day, clouds over the fires in Oregon mean that satellite detection is challenged, even though the by-product, smoke, is apparent.  Fires over Idaho are readily apparent however.  These fires were also detected by the 3.9 µm Shortwave Infrared channel on GOES-16, the traditional fire-detection channel (used in concert with 10.3 µm, the clean window channel).  Imagery at 1.6 µm and 2.2 µm imagery can also be used to highlight hot fires;  that will be the subject of a future blog post.

GOES-16 Fire Products: Fire Temperature, Fire Power and Fire Area, 2037 UTC on 6 September 2017 (Click to enlarge)

The mp4 animation, below, shows CIMSS Natural True Color over the Full Disk on 5 September 2017.  The Full Disk View allows a better visualization of how the smoke is moving (and underscores how widespread it is) — and it shows Hurricane Irma as well.

CIMSS Natural True Color, every 15 minutes, on 5 September 2017 (Click to animate)

NOAA creates many Smoke-related products, some of which are easily accessible at this link.

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Suomi NPP’s Day Night Band Image, below, from Real Earth, shows Hurricane Irma as it is over the island of Barbuda — note that the island is entirely within the eye! (Click here for an image with no underlying maps).

Suomi NPP Day Night Band Visible (0.7 µm) image, 0529 UTC on 6 September 2017, with underlying map (Click to enlarge)

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

GOES-16 Clean Window (10.3 µm) imagery at 30-second intervals, 0957 – 1202 UTC on 6 September 2017 (Click to animate)

GOES-16 Clean Window (10.3 µm) imagery, above, for two hours near sunrise on 6 September 2017 show a well-developed Irma moving through the islands to the east of Puerto Rico. The storm maintains its excellent satellite presentation with a distinct eye. Geostationary Lightning Mapper Data overlain on the 10.3 µm imagery (with a greyscale enhancement), below, shows that lightning continues to be active within the eyewall of this strong storm.

GOES-16 10.3 µm imagery at 15-minute intervals, with Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) data overlain at 3-minute intervals, yellow oldest, red newest (Click to animate)

For the latest on this powerful storm, consult the National Hurricane Center website, or the CIMSS Tropical Weather Website.

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