A large and slow-moving occluded mid-latitude cyclone left a large swath of heavy snowfall across much of the north-central US during the 30 November – 02 December 2015 period. The GOES-13 water vapor (6.5 µm) images shown above (also available as a 62 Mbyte animated gif) revealed the unusually large size of the circulation associated with this storm system. Storm total snowfall amounts included 12.0 inches at Valentine, Nebraska, 11.0 inches at Chamberlain, South Dakota, 8.7 inches at Sibley, Iowa, and 7.2 inches at Madison, Minnesota. The 8.7 inches at Sioux Falls, South Dakota was a record daily snowfall accumulation for 30 November.

As the storm moved eastward over the Great Lakes region on 02 December, clouds cleared to reveal the large areal extent of the snow cover on Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color and false-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) images (visualized using RealEarth) at 1948 UTC on 02 December (below). On the false-color image, snow cover (as well as lake ice) appears as shades of cyan, in contrast to supercooled water droplet clouds which are shades of white; glaciated (ice crystal) clouds also appear cyan. The deep snow cover, clear skies, and light winds aided strong radiational cooling during the following night, with minimum temperatures on the morning of 03 December as cold as -5º F at Brookings, South Dakota and -4º F at Sheldon, Iowa (KFSD RTP).

An alternative true-color vs false-color comparison (below) uses different spectral bands from the Aqua MODIS instrument — is this case, snow cover and lake ice appear as darker shades of red. The creation of these types of true-color and false-color RGB images will be possible using bands from the upcoming GOES-R ABI (scheduled to be launched in late 2016).

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The sequence of 5 daily Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) images shown above are centered on Beijing in northeastern China — these images (viewed using RealEarth) showed the transition from the Beijing area being sunny and snow-covered on 26 November to enshrouded in dense smog on 30 November 2015. The smog exhibited a distinct gray-colored appearance, in contrast to the brighter white clouds and snow cover. Much of this smog was driven by the burning of coal, both on a local level and by regional power plants (as discussed in this Capital Weather Gang blog post).

The corresponding daily time series plots of surface weather data at Beijing Capital International Airport (below) revealed that the surface visibility remained below 1.0 statute miles for extended periods. Although not indicated on the 26 November plot, the surface visibility began at 19 statute miles on that day, before the wind speeds became 4 knots or less beginning at 10 UTC and the visibility eventually began to decrease.

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GOES-13 (GOES-East) Visible (0.63 µm) images (above) showed the growth of offshore ice in the western and northwestern portions of Hudson Bay on 24 November 2015. Also evident on the imagery was cloud streets aligned with the northerly/northwesterly flow of cold arctic air over the water, as well as the presence of a mesoscale low moving southeastward. Apparently this mesoscale low was behind the primary low (with its associated trailing occluded front), which was depicted to be over the eastern portion of Hudson Bay (surface analyses) during the daylight hours of the visible imagery.

A better view of the offshore ice (as well as the ice in central Hudson Bay, northeast of the aforementioned mesoscale low) was provided by Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color and false-color images, visulized using the SSEC RealEarth web map server (below). In the false-color image, snow cover and ice appear as darker shades of cyan.

A comparison of Canadian Ice Service analyses from 16 November and 23 November (below) showed the growth of the offshore ice along the western and northwestern edges of Hudson Bay, as well as the larger area of ice growing southward in the central portion of Hudson Bay during that 1-week period. The departure from normal images at the bottom indicated that ice concentration along the western and northwestern edges was well below normal (red), while the concentration of the large area of ice in central Hudson Bay was greater than normal (blue).

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On 20 November, at 0922 UTC, the GOES-13 Sounder experienced an anomaly (the GOES-13 Sounder had Filter Wheel anomalies in 2012 as well: Link; Link). GOES Engineers determined that the Filter Wheel had stopped moving (the filter wheel aligns the infrared detectors with the incoming data) so data were not scanned. The image above shows the 13.4 µm (a CO2 channel) image before and after the anomaly. All 18 infrared channels are affected; the visible channel (band 19) continues sending usable data. GOES Engineers continue to investigate the problem. GOES Sounder derived products (such as Total Precipitable Water) are affected, and are no longer being produced or disseminated (Link). From an email from SSD: (Link)

*Update #2: * **Effective immediately; all the GOES-13 (GOES-East)
sounding products are ceased to produce and stop distribution as we are
experiencing an anomaly with the sounder instrument. Engineers are
investigating the problem. We will inform you when we resume our normal
operations.

*Update #1: * GOES-13 (GOES-East) Sounder IR Data Outage

*Topic:* GOES-13 (GOES-East) Sounder IR Data Products Outage

*Date/Time**Issued:*November 20, 2015 1955Z*
*

*Product(s) or Data Impacted:*

GOES-13 (GOES-East) Sounder data
Blended Hydrometorological Products – Blended TPW
Microwave AWIPS Products – Blended TPW
Microwave McIDAS Products – Blended TPW
GOES Gridded Cloud Product
GOES VARiable data
AFEP/Ingestor – GOES
N-AWIPS Ingest
Single Field of View BUFR
Single Field of View SDPI for AWIPS
Single Field of View TPW
Sounding ASOS SCSP
Web Pages

*Date/Time of Initial Impact:*November 20, 2015 0922Z **

*Date/Time of Expected End:* TBD

*Length of Outage:* TBD

*Details/Specifics of Change:*GOES-13 (GOES-East) Sounder instrumentis experiencing an anomaly. Engineers are investigating the problem. GOES-13 Sounder IR data is not available. **Effective immediately all the GOES-13 (GOES-East) sounding products are ceased to produce and stop distribution as we are experiencing an anomaly with the sounder instrument. Engineers are investigating the problem. We will inform you when we will resume our normal operations.

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Update 19 January 2016
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GOES-14 is scheduled to broadcast 1-minute SRSO-R data starting 1 February. GOES-14 will be activated on 25 January, with a maneuver shortly thereafter. It is likely that GOES-14 Sounder data will be broadcast from 1-25 February (GOES-14 Sounder Timing will be adjusted to match GOES-13 Sounder Timing) when the GOES-14 Imager is broadcasting SRSO-R data.

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