Japan successfully launched the Himawari-9 satellite from the Tanegashima Space Center (near the southern tip of Tanegashima in the Osumi Islands south of Kyushu), a back-up to Himawari-8, shortly after 3:20 PM local time (0620 UTC) on 2 November 2016 (News Link 1, 2, 3, 4). Images showing all 16 Himawari-8 AHI spectral bands bracketing the 0620 UTC launch time are shown above; signatures of the warm thermal anomaly (from the burning of the solid rocket boosters) as well as the moisture of the rocket condensation cloud plume were evident in the Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and Water Vapor (6.2 µm, 6.9 µm and 7.3 µm) bands, but a signal was also detectable in the Infrared 8.6 µm, 12.2 µm and 13.3 µm bands. The Himawari-8/9 AHI instrument is nearly identical to the ABI instrument on GOES-R — so similar imagery will be routinely available once GOES-R becomes operational in 2017.

The animation above shows the rocket plume in the Band 4 (0.86 µm) imagery (Band 4, the so-called “Veggie Band”, better discriminates between land and water so that the island of Tanegashima is more distinct) from Himawari-8, in the image at 0622 UTC. (Annotated 0622 UTC Image is here). The plume appears north of the launch site (which is located at the southern tip of the island).

A true-color image, below, that includes the three visible channels from Himawari-8 (Band 1 at 0.47 µm, Band 2 at 0.51 µm and Band 3 at 0.64 µm, with the Band 2 “Green Band” boosted by information in the Veggie Band at 0.86 µm) shows a plume, perhaps, emerging from the cloud field at the southern tip of the island.

Another view of the 3.9 µm Shortwave Infrared imagery, below, shows a short-lived hot-spot near where the Band 4 imagery shows the plume. Note: due to parallax, the location of the high-altitude hot spot appears farther north than its actual location.

Visible Imagery for the same three times, below, suggests a plume may be present (toggle between Visible and Shortwave Infrared images).

As mentioned above, signatures of the warm thermal anomaly and the moisture of the rocket condensation cloud plume were also evident on the three Himawari-8 Water Vapor bands, shown below — strong westerly winds aloft (satellite | model) quickly transported the high-altitude portion of the rocket plume eastward.

A video of the launch is here, with the launch itself at 44 minutes.

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A compact tropical-like cyclone (often referred to as a “medicane“) moved across the Mediterranean Sea during the 28-31 October 2016 period. EUMETSAT Meteosat-10 Infrared Window (10.8 um) images (above; also available as a 71 Mbyte animated GIF) showed the system as it developed over the Ionian Sea between Italy and Greece, initially moved southwestward, and then turned to the east where it eventually passed near the Greek island of Crete on 31 October (producing a wind gust to 52 knots at Chania’s Souda Airport LGSA and causing some wind and water damage: media story 1 | media story 2). In addition, a wind gust to 50 knots was seen on a ship report at 12 UTC on 28 October, just to the west of the storm center.

The corresponding EUMETSAT Meteosat-10 Visible (0.64 um) images (below; also available as a 17 Mbyte animated GIF) provided a more detailed look at the structure of the storm during the daylight hours of those 4 days.

Daily snapshots of Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) images viewed using RealEarth are shown below. The hazy signature of blowing dust/sand from northern Africa could be seen within the broad southeast quadrant of the storm circulation.

There was ample moisture available to fuel convection around the storm, as seen in the MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product (below).

The surface wind circulation of the medicane was well-sampled on a variety of Metop-A and Metop-B overpasses, using ASCAT plots (below) from this site.

Suomi NPP ATMS images (below; courtesy of Derrick Herndon, CIMSS) revealed the areal coverage of the small “warm core” on Channel 8 (54.94 GHz) and Channel 7 (53.596 GHz); a north-to-south oriented vertical cross section showed the depth of the thermal anomaly associated with the medicane.

 

For additional information, see this blog post from the Capital Weather Gang.

 

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GOES-15 (GOES-West) Visible (0.63 µm) images during the daylight hours on 23, 24 and 25 October 2016 (above) revealed the hazy signature of large amounts of airborne glacial silt and sand from the Copper River Valley being transported southward over the adjacent offshore waters of the Gulf of Alaska. The fine glacial silt and sand particles were being lofted by strong katabatic gap winds being channeled southward down the Copper River Valley — these winds were the result of a strong pressure gradient between arctic high pressure that was moving from the Interior of Alaska to the Yukon Territory of Canada (surface analyses) and a large occluded low centered off the coast of British Columbia and the US Pacific Northwest (24 October visible imagery).

Comparisons between Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images on 24 October (above) and 25 October (below) showed that the small airborne glacial silt/sand particles were very reflective to solar radiation, and exhibited a warmer (darker gray to black enhancement) signature in the Shortwave Infrared images (similar to the warmer signature seen due to spherical water droplets at the tops of supercooled stratiform clouds). On 25 October a large aerosol plume was also emerging from Yakutat Bay, moving southwestward.

A time series plot of surface observations from Middleton Island (PAMD) in the northern Gulf of Alaska (above) showed that the surface visibility was reduced to 3 miles on 24 October and 5 miles on 25 October as the Copper River plume periodically passed over the island. The ceiling height on 24 October was reported to be as low as 1400 feet as the surface visibility began to decrease. Along the southern coast of Alaska just west of the Copper River Delta, the visibility at Cordova (PACV) dropped to 5 miles with haze reported late in the day on 25 October as the western edge of the plume drifted over that area (below).

A zoom-in of the 2246 UTC Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) image on 24 October (using RealEarth) showed the gray to light tan color of the glacial silt/sand plume.

Shown below are toggles between Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color RGB and Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) images (from the eIDEA site) for 23, 24 and 25 October. Very high values of AOT (in the 0.8 to 1.0 range) were associated with the Copper River plumes.

A toggle between Terra MODIS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared (11-12 µm, commonly referred to as the “split window difference”) Brightness Temperature Difference (BTD) images on 25 October (below) revealed that there was a very subtle Copper River plume signature in the BTD image (note: the default 11-12 µm BTD color enhancement was modified to better highlight the plume in this example).

In that respect, the MODIS Infrared “split window” BTD images could be used to help locate the Copper River plume during nighttime as well as daytime, as seen in the image comparison below. The ABI instrument on GOES-R will have similar 11 µm and 12 µm Infrared bands, and will have the capability to provide this type of BTD imagery at 5 minute intervals over the entire Full Disk scan.

Previous cases of similar airborne Copper River plumes have been documented on this blog: Oct 2014 | Nov 2013 | Oct 2012.

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The orbital geometry of Suomi NPP is such that regions north of about 43º N latitude can occasionally receive NUCAPS (NOAA-Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System) Vertical Profiles of moisture and temperature on sequential orbital passes, meaning a given location could have vertical profiles separated by less than 2 hours. This occurred early on 20 October 2016 over Maine and Cape Cod, as shown above: Suomi NPP NUCAPS Vertical Profile locations are indicated over Day/Night Band Visible imagery. Two soundings at approximately the same location are circled in cyan in this small image and are shown below. There are two sequential profiles over Cape Cod, and then the two sequential profiles north of Maine. The atmosphere over Cape Cod was quiescent on this date, and little change between soundings is evident. In contrast, slight cold air advection was occurring north of Maine (Surface analysis from 0900 UTC, 500-mb analysis from 00 UTC), and the NUCAPS Sounding shows mid-level cooling.

For stations in the northern Plains, or in Canada, sequential soundings overnight or perhaps more importantly in the mid-afternoon (Suomi NPP typically overflies the Plains a bit after Noon local time) could give important information about destabilization.

Previous CIMSS Satellite Blog Entries referencing NUCAPS Vertical Profiles are available here.

=============== Added 2100 UTC on 20 October 2016 ===============The toggle below shows two soundings, from 1700 and 1800 UTC in central Pennsylvania in the region between Harrisburg and Williamsport (click here to see the Sounding Locations), just east of a slight risk issued by the Storm Prediction Center. The time evolution suggests upward motion (the top of the inversion rises) and a weakening in the cap. Severe Thunderstorm Watch #499 was issued 1945 UTC on 20 October for counties just to the west of these NUCAPS Profile locations — and damaging winds were reported in central Pennsylvania beginning at 2154 UTC.

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