Cyclone Donna (18P) formed in the South Pacific Ocean (northeast of Vanuatu) on 02 May 2017. Himawari-8 Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images during the 03-06 May period (above) revealed the formation of multiple convective bursts, many exhibiting cloud-top IR brightness temperatures of -90º C and colder.

On 07 May, Cyclone Donna rapidly intensified from a Category 2 to a Category 4 storm (SATCON | ADT) — and Himawari-8 Infrared Window images (below) showed the presence of a large eye for a few hours. Environmental factors favoring rapid intensification included warm sea surface temperatures and light vertical wind shear.

A comparison of GMI Microwave (85 GHz) and Himawari-8 Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) showed that the actual diameter of the eye was much larger on microwave imagery around 1400 UTC on 07 May.

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

One of the two GOES-16 Mesoscale Sectors was moved from its default position over the eastern United States and placed over the west coast of the United States on 4 May 2017. This allowed 1-minute imagery of a small-scale coastal eddy between Cape Mendocino and Pt. St. George near Crescent City, above, and an associated coastal jet. (Click here to play 300-meg Animated Gif; alternatively, this animation shows the eddy from 1600-1900 UTC as displayed in AWIPS (courtesy Dan Miller, WFO DLH))

A zoomed-in Visible animation of the coastal eddy is shown below; NWS Eureka described it as “one of the best examples of these coastal eddies seen in quite a while”.

GOES-16 Visible 0.64 µm imagery is able to capture not only the eddy, but also the northerly low-level jet that develops off the coast of Cape Mendocino, swiftly moving clouds southward around that feature. A small eddy also develops south of Cape Mendocino. Note also the abundance of cirrus clouds flowing northward along the coast.

The dimensions of this eddy are approximately 70 km in the along-shore direction and 55 km perpendicular to the shore, yet GOES-16 is able to capture and resolve many small-scale cloud bands. The small cloud band streaming south around Cape Mendocino, for example, is only about 6 km wide and is well-resolved; if GOES-16 becomes GOES-East at 75 W Longitude, this is the type of resolution that can be expected in Salt Lake City.

It should be noted that none of the models (including the hourly RTMA, below) resolved this eddy feature.

Thanks to Dan Miller, Science and Operations Officer (SOO) in Duluth for calling this awesome feature to our attention!

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

A late-season snow storm dropped a band of heavy snow over Colorado, western Kansas and western Nebraska on 29-30 April 2017. In the visible image above from sunrise on 1 May 2017, it is difficult to guess where the cloud features sit on top of the snow (Click here for a visible image with a map), even with the knowledge that they are casting shadows in this early morning imagery. GOES-16 includes a 1.61 µm channel, however; radiation at that wavelength is absorbed strongly by ice — either in the form of cirrus clouds, or snow, so that reflectance is small over ice features. The toggle below between the 1.61 µm “Snow/Ice” Channel and the 0.64 µm “Red Visible” channel shows ice and snow as dark. Clouds that are made up of water droplets are highly reflective in the 1.61 µm and in the 0.64 µm channels; such water clouds (there are only a few of them!) show up as very bright against the dark background of snow in the 1.61 µm channel.

Note in the toggle above that shadows are much darker in the 1.61 µm channel. Why?

Atmospheric scattering is stronger at shorter wavelengths in the atmosphere; there is more scattering of 0.64 µm radiation than of 1.61 µm radiation. In the shadow regions, more 0.64 µm radiation than 1.61 µm is being scattered back towards the satellite for detection. Shadows in the 0.47 µm “Blue Visible” band should be even less distinct. Non-annotated versions of imagery are available here for 0.64 µm and here for 1.61 µm.

During the subsequent late morning and early afternoon hours, the edges of the long swath of snow cover were seen to melt quickly — due to heating from the high May sun angle — on GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) and Snow/Ice (1.61 µm) images, below. The Snow/Ice images helped to highlight bright cumulus clouds (composed of supercooled water droplets) drifting southeastward across the snow cover.

Animations of GOES-16 Visible vs Snow/Ice images from the previous day (when the southwestern portion of the swath of fresh snow cover first became evidentt as clouds from the parent storm departed) are available here: Animated GIF | MP4.

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Aeroflot Flight 270 encountered severe turbulence just off the coast of Myanmar (CNN | Aviation Herald) as it was flying toward its destination of Bangkok, Thailand on 01 May 2017. According to information from FlightRadar24 (flight map) and FlightAware (flight map | flight log) the time and location of the turbulence was around 23:54-23:56 UTC, near 16.4 N latitude, 97.4 East longitude, at the cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Himawari-8 Water Vapor (6.9m) images (above; courtesy of Sarah Griffin, CIMSS) indicated that the aircraft made a slight course correction to fly over or through a small cluster of rapidly-developing thunderstorms — this convection was the likely cause of the turbulence.

Closer views of Himawari-8 Visible (0.64 µm), Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images, centered at the location of the turbulence encounter (below), showed the rapid development of individual convective elements within this cluster of thunderstorms. Cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were around -70º C on the 01 May / 00:10 UTC image.

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