GOES-3 started service on 16 June 1978 and was the operational GOES-West satellite until the late 1980s. Having lost imaging capabilities, it started a second long life as a communications satellite; GOES-3 is currently the oldest operating satellite. Decommissioning will begin on 8 June and run for 15 days. If final decommissioning happens as planned on 23 June, GOES-3’s service life will be 38 years, 7 days.

GOES-3’s arguably most famous imagery occurred during the eruption of Mount St. Helens on 18 May 1980, shown above (click here for an animation of the eruption, courtesy of Barry Roth, SSEC; Tim Schmit, NOAA/ASPB also provided longer visible animations: MP4 | animated GIF).

A comparison of GOES-3 Visible (0.65 µm) and Infrared Window (11.5 µm) images, below, showed that a large portion of the volcanic cloud exhibited IR brightness temperatures of -60º C (darker red color enhancement) or colder as the feature moved rapidly eastward during the first 10 hours following the eruption. It is interesting to note that a small “enhanced-V” or cold/warm (-65ºC/-47ºC) thermal couplet signature was evident on the initial 1545 UTC Infrared image (zoom), as the volcanic ash cloud rapidly rose to an estimated altitude of 12 to 16 miles (20 to 27 km) above sea level.

Some early examples of Full Disk GOES-3 images (on 20 November 1978) are shown below, courtesy of Tim Schmit, NOAA/ASPB.

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4-km resolution GOES-13 (GOES-East) Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images (above) showed the cold cloud tops associated with training and back-building thunderstorms that produced very heavy rainfall (along with some hail and damaging winds) in parts of Southeast Texas during the 26 May – 27 May 2016 period. The images are centered on Brenham, Texas (station identifies K11R), where over 19 inches of rainfall was reported in a 24-hour period (NWS Houston PNS). Note the presence of very cold cloud-top IR brightness temperatures of -80º C or colder (violet color enhancement).

During the overnight hours, a comparison of Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 0801 UTC or 3:01 am local time (below) revealed cloud-top gravity waves propagating northwestward away from the core of overshooting tops (which exhibited IR brightness temperatures as cold as -84º C) located just to the west of Brenham. Due to ample illumination from the Moon — which was in the Waning Gibbous phase, at 71% of Full — the “visible image at night” capability of the VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB) was well-demonstrated. The bright white streaks seen on the DNB image are a signature of cloud-top illumination by intense lightning activity.

A time series plot of surface weather conditions at Brenham is shown below.

===== 28 May Update =====

A 30-meter resolution Landsat-8 false-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) image viewed using the RealEarth web map server (above) showed widespread areas of inundation (darker shades of blue) along the Brazos River and some of its tributaries, just to the east and north of Brenham, Texas.

 

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Cyclone Roanu (01B) was the first tropical cyclone of the 2016 North Indian Ocean season, with a northeastward track just off the east coast of India during the 18-21 May period. The storm moved over very warm waters, with sea surface temperature values of 30-31º C, but moderate amounts of deep-layer wind shear prevented the storm from rapidly intensifying (ADT | SATCON). INSAT-3D Infrared Window (10.8 µm) images (above; also available as a large 79 Mbyte animated GIF) showed that the storm exhibited a number of convective bursts with a large areal coverage of cloud-top IR brightness temperatures colder than -90ºC. Cyclone Roanu brought very heavy rainfall to Sri Lanka, coastal India, and Bangladesh.

As Roanu was moving along the east coast, very hot surface air temperatures were seen in the western portion of India on 19 May, with many sites reporting temperatures in excess of 110ºF. The animation below shows hourly Infrared images with surface METAR reports, as viewed using RealEarth.

INSAT 3D Visible (0.65 µm) images with hourly surface temperatures in ºF (above) revealed temperatures as warm as 122ºF at Ahmadabad, at 10 UTC and 12 UTC; a plot of the time series of weather condition at Ahmadabad is shown below. Farther to the north at the city of Phalodi (whose location is denoted by the gray * symbol) a temperature of 123.8ºF or 51.0ºC was recorded, which set an all-time record for the highest temperature officially measured in India (the previous record was 50.6ºC, set in 1886 at Pachpadra)..

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H/T to Brian McNoldy for sending this out on Twitter:

#Miami‘s morning sounding observed 2.18″ of precipitable water, breaking the previous 17May 12Z record of 1.97″ pic.twitter.com/7Kh4Yokovc

— Brian McNoldy (@BMcNoldy) May 17, 2016

Hourly images of the MIMIC Total Precipitable Water (TPW) product (below) revealed the northward transport of deep tropical moisture from the Caribbean during the 16 May – 17 May 2016 period, with TPW values near Miami (KMFL) around 55 mm or 2.17 inches at 12 UTC on 17 May.

A comparison of the 00 UTC and 12 UTC Miami soundings (below) showed the increase of moisture within the middle to upper troposphere that helped contribute to the daily record maximum TPW value of 2.18 inches at 12 UTC.

The northward surge of tropical moisture also helped to fuel the development of a large mesoscale convective system over the eastern Gulf of Mexico, as seen in 4-km resolution GOES-13 Infrared Window (10.7 µm)  imagery (below). Cloud-top IR brightness temperatures were as cold as -80º C (violet color enhancement) at times with this storm.

A comparison of 1-km resolution Terra MODIS Visible (0.65 µm) and Infrared Window (11.0 µm) images at 1632 UTC is shown below.

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