1-minute interval SRSO-R GOES-14 Visible (0.63 µm) images (above; also available as a large 259 Mbyte animated GIF) showed a curved outflow boundary — produced by a strong quasi-linear convective system the preceding overnight hours in northern Texas — which continued to propagate southward across southern Texas during the day on 20 April 2016. New clusters of convection formed along and in the wake of the eastern portion of the outflow boundary (which dropped an additional 0.67 inch of rainfall in one hour across the flood-ravaged Houston area), while the western portion was marked by a low-level arc cloud.

On the corresponding GOES-14 Water Vapor (6.5 µm) images (below; also available as a large 126 Mbyte animated GIF), a very subtle signature of the western  part of the outflow boundary could be seen in the dryer atmosphere (where the water vapor weighting functions were shifted to lower altitudes). Also of interest were a few long and narrow contrails which appeared within that same dry region of the atmosphere after about 1800 UTC — these thin contrails were not evident in the GOES-14 visible or infrared imagery.

A comparison of the 3 Water Vapor bands (6.5 µm, 7.0 µm and 7.4 µm) available from the GOES-14 sounder instrument (below) demonstrated how each of the individual bands was detecting radiation emitted from a different layer of the troposphere; this was further shown by examining plots of the water vapor weighting functions for the 1 imager and the 3 sounder water vapor bands (calculated using 12 UTC rawinsonde data from Del Rio, Texas KDRT). The ABI instrument on GOES-R will have 3 water vapor bands similar to those on the current generation sounder instrument, but with significantly improved spatial and temporal resolution.

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GOES-14 has entered super  rapid scan operations that will continue through 15 May 2016 (Link), in part to support the Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT) at the Storm Prediction Center (GOES-R HWT Blog) and the VORTEX Southeast experiment. GOES-14 is viewing the central Plains today and tomorrow in anticipation of thunderstorm development. (SPC Day 1 Convective Outlook for 18 April; Day 2 Convective Outlook for 19 April). The visible animation above shows a strong thunderstorm early in the morning on 18 April 2016 near Kerrville TX.

Note that the Twitter Feed @SRSORbot is now active. The bot tweets out 1-hour animations (with 5-minute time steps) every 20 minutes using the latest GOES-14 SRSO-R visible (day) or infrared (night) imagery.

A longer version of the GOES-14 Visible image animation (with overlays of surface weather symbols) is shown below (also available as a large 203 Mbyte animated GIF).

A comparison of GOES-15, GOES-14 and GOES-13 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images, below, demonstrates the advantage of 1-minute super rapid scan over the routine 15-minute routine scan interval for characterizing the intensity and trends of a short-lived grassfire in far western Oklahoma. Even though a fire hot spot (yellow color enhancement) appeared on the “2000 UTC” GOES-15 and GOES-13 images, the actual scan time of the fire for those 2 satellites was 2004 and 2003 UTC, respectively; a fire hot spot of 317.2 K was first detected on the 2101 UTC GOES-14 image. The magnitude of the fire hot spot then quickly increased to 332.8 K (red color enhancement) on the 2005 UTC GOES-14 image; the short-term fluctuations in the intensity of the fire hot spot were only adequately captured by the 1-minute super rapid scan interval of the GOES-14 images.

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GOES-14 Water Vapor (6.5 µm) images (above; also available as a large 85 Mbyte animated GIF) showed the development of a large upper-level closed low centered over the western US during the 15 April – 17 April 2016 period. This large storm system was responsible for a wide variety of weather, ranging from heavy snow and high winds in the Rocky Mountains to heavy rainfall and severe weather from eastern Colorado to Texas (SPC storm reports: 15 April | 16 April | 17 April).

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A plot of the Advanced Dvorak Technique (ADT) hurricane intensity estimate (above) revealed that Indian Ocean Cyclone Fantala (19S) exhibited a period of rapid intensification on 15 April 2016, reaching Category 4 intensity with maximum sustained winds of 135 knots at 14 UTC.

EUMETSAT Meteosat-7 Infrared Window (11.5 µm) images (below) showed the formation of a well-defined eye after about 03 UTC.

A comparison of Meteosat-7 Infrared (11.5 µm) and DMSP-18 SSMI Microwave (85 GHz) images from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) showed the eye structure around 15 UTC.

===== 18 April Update =====

During the 17-18 April period Cyclone Fantala reached Category 5 intensity (ADT plot), with maximum sustained winds of 150 knots (making it the strongest tropical cyclone on record in the South Indian Ocean); Fantala also became the longest-lived hurricane-strength tropical cyclone on record for that ocean basin. Meteosat-7 Infrared Window (11.5 µm) images (above) showed the storm reaching peak intensity as it moved just north of the island of Madagascar.

A comparison of Suomi NPP VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) and Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) images (below) offered a detailed nighttime view of the eye of Fantala at 2249 UTC on 17 April. Side lighting from the Moon (in the Waxing Gibbous phase, at 81% of full) helped to cast a distinct shadow within the eye, and also provided a good demonstration of the “visible image at night” capability of the Day/Night Band.

 

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