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

The Storm Prediction Center issued a Moderate Risk for severe thunderstorms over the southern Plains on 28 March 2017. As a result, both 1-minute GOES-16 Mesoscale Sectors were positioned over that region, providing images at 30-second intervals. ABI 0.5-km resolution Visible (0.64 µm) images with parallax-corrected SPC storm reports of hail and tornadoes (above; also available as a 193 Mbyte animated GIF) showed a very detailed view of the overshooting tops associated with the storms during the 2030-2359 UTC time period.

The images were centered approximately over the Lubbock (KLBB) to Midland (KMAF) to Abilene (KABI) region (below).

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Cyclone Debbie formed in the Coral Sea on 22 March 2017, and eventually intensified to a Category 3 storm (ADT | SATCON) as it moved southward toward Australia. Himawari-8 Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above) showed the eye of Debbie as it was making landfall in Queensland, near Prosperpine (YBPN).

The Landsat-8 satellite made an overpass of the eye at 2358 UTC (above), as a large convective burst had developed within the northern semicircle of the eyewall (which was also evident in the corresponding Himawari-8 Visible and Infrared Window images viewed using RealEarth).

Debbie was undergoing an eyewall replacement cycle as the storm center approached the coast — this was evident in Microwave (85 GHz) images from GMI at 1425 (above) and SSMIS at 2017 UTC (below) from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site.

The MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product (below; also available as an MP4 animation) showed copious tropical moisture associated with Cyclone Debbie, which led to rainfall accumulations as high as 780 mm (30.7 inches) — with rainfall rates up to 200 mm (7.9 inches) per hour — and record flooding along the coast from Brisbane to Lismore.

 

 

 

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** 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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