Typhoon Koppu hit the northern Philippines island of Luzon on Saturday 18 October. The 4-panel mp4 animation above (Click here for an animated gif) shows the 3 water vapor infrared channels (6.2 µm, 6.9 µm and 7.3 µm) and the window infrared channel (10.35 µm) from the Himawari-8 satellite. There is value in three water vapor channels because the shorter wavelength (6.2 µm) better captures high-level moisture whereas the longer wavelength better captures mid-level moisture. Cirrus is readily apparent in the 6.2 µm channel; tropical cumulus is more readily apparent underneath cirrus in the 7.3 µm channel. Compare the two channels in this animation, for example, or in this one. The three water vapor channels on Himawari-8 (similar to the 3 that will fly on the GOES-R ABI instrument) give a three-dimensional view of atmospheric moisture. All four channels above show the approach of Koppu towards Luzon, with the ragged eye filling rapidly at landfall.

The structure of Koppu’s eyewall is depicted above in a 24-hour morphed animation of microwave data (Source, as referred to from here). The nearly complete eyewall rapidly loses its integrity as the storm moves onshore. Total Precipitable Water (below, taken from the MIMIC Total Precipitable Water Site) shows Koppu on the northern edge of the rich moisture source that is the Intertropical Convergence Zone (Typhoon Champi is to Koppu’s east). Notably, the storm stalled over Luzon after making landfall; flooding rainfalls occurred.

Himawari-8 also captured the evolution of the storm in visible imagery. The full-resolution animation from 0100-0930 UTC on 17 October is shown below (a slower animation is available here). Periodic bursts of deep convection are apparent in the curved bands near the storm center. These convective bursts are better resolved with the 10-minute imagery from Himawari-8 than from 15-minute data from MTSAT-2 (or COMS-1).

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On October 16, 1975, GOES-A was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida (NESDIS Link). After achieving orbit, it was renamed GOES-1 and it broadcast its first image on October 25 of that year. The animation (mp4) above is from January 1983, when GOES-1 was operating as GOES-West. GOES-1 was in service for 10 years; it was decommissioned in March of 1985.

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A 250-meter resolution Terra MODIS true-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) image from the SSEC MODIS Today site (above) revealed the widespread orange hue of Autumn tree colors over parts of northeastern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan on 11 October 2015.

A comparison with the corresponding MODIS false-color RGB image (below) helped to identify 2 features of interest: (1) the large burn scar from the Pagami Creek fire in northeastern Minnesota (12 September 2011), and (2) the long tornado damage scar from the EF3 Langlade tornado in northeastern Wisconsin (07 June 2007). The location of these 2 features appears on this annotated image.

On the following day (12 October), the three MODIS true-color images below showed similar signatures of Autumn tree colors over portions of the Northeast US (SSEC MODIS Today).

The Autumn tree colors across the Northeast US were also evident on Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color imagery, as viewed using the SSEC RealEarth web map server (below).

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The rocking animation* above shows central Pacific Hurricane Oho forming south of Hawai’i and then moving quickly northeast; moisture associated with the remains of the storm is now moving onshore in British Columbia and Alaska Southeast. It is unusual for central Pacific Hurricanes to influence directly the weather in the Pacific Northwest as Oho will (link). Because of the record number of central Pacific Hurricanes this year (in the satellite era at least), however, it’s perhaps not surprising that this is occurring.

The moisture is also trackable via microwave data as shown in the MIMIC Total Precipitable Water animation below.

Scatterometer winds from 0630 UTC (below) show a region of 40+-knot winds both in the warm sector of the storm and behind the cold front.

*You may notice some full disk imagery missing in this loop (at 0900 and 2100 UTC in the animation). At 2100 UTC the Sun is behind the ground antenna acquiring the data. This happens for a few days each year. The 0900 UTC imagery is missing because of GOES-15 Keep-Out Zone Operations.

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