Early morning visible imagery over Matthew, above, from GOES-13, shows a circular storm with many overshooting tops and no apparent eye. However, Microwave imagery, below, from GCOM at about 0620 UTC, shows an eye structure beneath the clouds. (Information on AMSR-2 is here; Imagery was produced using Polar2Grid, part of CSPP, the Community Satellite Processing Package). Matthew is forecast to turn north and move over the Greater Antilles, threatening Jamaica, Hispaniola and Cuba from Sunday to early Tuesday. More information is available at the National Hurricane Center website.

One benefit of Polar2Grid is that it puts different satellite imagery on the same grid, and therefore an animation of Polar data can be produced. The 10.8 µm window channel animation below has imagery from the AVHRR on METOP-A (1349 UTC) and METOP-B (1441 UTC) (Imagery from NOAA-18 (1030 UTC) was projected onto a different grid). A Visible image toggle using data from METOP-A and METOP-B is here.

===== Update, 1800 UTC =====Visible imagery from GOES-13 (below) shows the development of an eye. Matthew continues its motion to the west-southwest in between Colombia and Hispaniola.

===== Update, 22 UTC 01 October =====

According to the NHC, Hurricane Matthew reached Category 5 intensity around 00 UTC on 01 October (public advisory |  discussion). An animation of GOES-13 Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images from 09 UTC on 30 September to 18 UTC on 01 October, above, showed the evolution of cold cloud-top brightness temperatures surrounding the small eye during the period of rapid intensification (SATCON)  on 30 September – 01 October.

Interestingly, the center of what had since been downgraded to a Category 4 Matthew did a circular loop during the daylight hours of 01 October, as seen in a 2-panel comparison of GOES-13 Visible (0.63 µm) and Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images, below.

One important point about the location of Matthew:

At 13.3N, #Matthew is the southernmost Category 5 on record in the Atlantic, surpassing Ivan 2004 which reached it at 13.7N.

— Brenden Moses (@Cyclonebiskit) October 1, 2016

It is because of this southerly location that the storm was not adequately sampled within the CONUS scan sector (which was being provided with imagery as often as every 5-7 minutes, since GOES-13 was in Rapid Scan Operations mode) — so imagery of Matthew was only available every 30 minutes from the Northern Hemisphere scan sector. Once GOES-R becomes operational, a full disk scan can be performed as freqently as once every 5 minutes, which would provide much better sampling for an important tropical cyclone such as Matthew.

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Note: Matthew was upgraded to a Hurricane at 1800 UTC on 29 September. See the National Hurricane Center Website for the latest information.

The area of disturbed weather that has been moving across the tropical Atlantic for the past week, shown above in six-hour steps using visible (0.63 µm) imagery during the day and shortwave infrared (3.9 µm) imagery at night, has developed into a strong tropical storm, named Matthew, as it moves through the Windward Islands. Matthew is embedded with the rich moisture source of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, as shown in the animation below of MIRS Total Precipitable Water, taken from this source. Matthew is also heading towards a region rich in moisture — it appears that dry air should not influence Matthew’s evolution in the near term.

Matthew’s predicted course into the Caribbean is over very warm water with high heat content (below, imagery from the CIMSS Tropical Weather site). Wind shear over the storm is low, with larger values to the west; the region of high shear in advance of Matthew has been preceding the storm for the past 72 hours and it is forecast to continue its retreat from Matthew. The forecast from the National Hurricane Center is for slow strengthening.

Late in the afternoon on the 28th, GOES-13 detected cloud tops cooler than -80º C associated with some of the overshooting tops (the purple enhancement). Overshooting tops can be detected automatically and shown at this website.

============== Added, 29 September 2016 =================

Suomi NPP overflew the eastern Caribbean early on 29 September, and the Day Night Band imagery, below, (from RealEarth) shows Matthew west of the Windward Islands. A lone lightning strike is visible in the convective clouds. There appears in this very low light image to be a low-level circulation exposed to the west of the deep clouds, suggesting a sheared storm.

A GOES-13 Visible Image animation from just after sunrise shows a the circulation center exposed to the west of the deep convection.

NOAA-19 overflew Matthew at about 1900 UTC on 29 September 2016, shortly after the storm was upgraded to a Hurricane, and visible imagery from that pass (data courtesy of the AOML Direct Broadcast antenna) shows far less evidence of a sheared storm. The Central Dense Overcast is above the surface circulation.

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Between 0900 and 1000 UTC on 27 September (2 AM and 3 AM PDT) Suomi NPP overflew the Loma fire that is burning in the high terrain between Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties in northern California. (News Article 1; News Article 2) The toggle above shows the glow of the fire in the nighttime visible imagery from the Day/Night Band on the VIIRS instrument. This glow is along the border of the two counties, well removed from the glow of nearby cities. The fire hot spot as detected by the 3.7 micron channel is apparent as well. Smoke from the fire is difficult to detect in this low-light scene (the waxing quarter moon was below the horizon at the time of the image, shedding no light on the scene).

GOES-15 can provide 3.9 µm imagery roughly 4 times per hour (when GOES-R is launched, shortwave infrared imagery will be produced every 5 minutes over the continental United States) allowing a better indication of how the fire is evolving with time. The animation below, from 0500 through 1530 UTC, shows a cooling trend in the warmest pixels (hottest pixels are colored red in the animation, then yellow, then black), which is expected as winds that drive the fire relax at night. There is notable motion in the navigation of this image. GOES-15 is operating with only 1 Star Tracker (vs. the usual 3), resulting in less-precise image navigation.

Visible Imagery from GOES-15 after sunrise on 27 September shows a long smoke plume moving southeastward from the fire source.

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Super Typhoon Megi (20W) made landfall on the island of Taiwan as a Category 4 storm (CIMSS SATCON) on 27 September 2016, as seen on JMA Himawari-8 Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above; also available as a 69 Mbyte animated GIF). It is interesting to note the blossoming of cold cloud-top IR brightness temperatures of -80º C and colder (violet color enhancement) west of the island after landfall.

The MIMIC-TC product (below) showed that Megi was going through an eyewall replacement cycle around the time of landfall.

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