GOES-16 1-minute imagery over Hurricane Beryl, above, shows the Category 5 (on the Saffir-Simpson scale) storm moving across the central Caribbean to the south of Puerto Rico. At the beginning of the animation the cold cloud tops are distributed symmetrically around the storm; by the end of the animation, some erosion of the cloud canopy is apparent along the western edge of the storm, although the eye structure appears unchanged.

GLM Flash Extent Density observations (scaled from 0-64) over the storm, below (regrettably only plotted over the northern half of the storm that sits within the GOES-16 CONUS domain), show active lightning within the eyewall, a hallmark of a very strong storm.

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Zoomed-in visible imagery over the eye, below, shows the intricate cloud patterns with the eye.

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The National Hurricane Center has more information on this dangerous storm. You can also find diagnostics over the storm at SSEC/CIMSS Tropical Weather Website.

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GOES-16 Full-disk imagery, above, shows strong Hurricane Beryl moving through the windward islands on 1 July 2024. Beryl made her first landfall on Carriacou Island at 1510 UTC on 1 July. Of note is that the distinct eye of Beryl is lost between about 0800 and 1000 UTC as very strong convection develops over the southeastern quadrant of the storm. (The animation above also includes Tropical Storm Chris that made landfall in Mexico shortly before 0500 UTC on 1 July). The strong convection over Beryl’s southeast wall is better visualized in the zoomed-in Band 13 (10.3 µm) imagery shown below.

SATCON (Satellite Consensus) wind values for Beryl, below, (source), show a storm that was strengthening after a modest and temporary weakening that ended around 0600 UTC on 1 July.

Microwave data over Beryl from GCOM-W1 AMSR-2 observations at 0542 UTC, below (from this source), show a compact eye that is not quite closed at upper levels (as shown by the 89 GHz data) at that time. The two observations also shows a slight shift in the center position: use the 36.5 GHz data to make the best estimate of where the center actually sits as the 36.5 GHz shows information from lower in the troposphere.

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Although Beryl is in a very favorable environment at about 1800 UTC on 1 July, the predicted path takes the storm into a region of increasing shear, as shown in the toggle below showing 850-200 mb shear and SSTs. The increase in shear may affect the strength of the system, but residents throughout the central Caribbean should closely monitor the progress of this dangerous storm.

Wind shear can be visualized with the Day Cloud Type RGB, shown below from GOES-16 CONUS domain imagery; Beryl is just entering the CONUS domain in the far southeastern corner. This RGB similar to the Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB, but the ‘red’ beam in Day Cloud Type uses Band 4 (that is, the ‘Cirrus band’ at 1.38 µm) reflectance rather than Band 13 (‘Clean Window’, 10.3 µm) brightness temperatures in the Day Cloud Phase Distinction. In the Day Cloud Type RGB, upper-level clouds, even thin ones, are more noticeable as red, and the animation below shows the high clouds over the Caribbean moving in a much different direction that the lower clouds that show up as cyan.

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For the latest information on Beryl, refer to the website of the National Hurricane Center.

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CSPP Geosphere imagery above (direct link) shows an area of sun glint over the tropical Atlantic. Embedded within the brighter areas of sun glint is a dark path centered near 7^oN, 52^oW over the ocean to the northeast of French Guiana. Long-time readers of this blog will no doubt recognize this feature as an area with very light winds (link). Indeed, Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) winds from MetopC (source), below, from 0121 UTC on 28 June, show light winds in the vicinity.

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Your eye might also be drawn to the circulation in the animation above that is the current invest 95L in the tropical Atlantic. In what kind of environment is that system developing? What satellite data can be used to describe this system? The Saharan Air Layer analysis, below (source), shows the storm south of an extensive SAL region. A water vapor image (sensing the mid-troposphere) at 1200 UTC (link) also shows extensive dry air surrounding the system.

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water analyses (source) for the 24 hours ending at 1400 UTC on 28 June 2024, below, shows the cyclonic circulation associated with the Invest as it moves across 40^oW longitude (another concentrated area of moisture is moving through the northwestern Caribbean Sea).

MetopC ASCAT winds, below, show a circulation near 9^oN/38^oW at 2334 UTC on 27 June 2024.

Wind shear and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) analyses surrounding 95L, below, show a favorable environment (that is, low values of wind shear, and warm SST values). Imagery below is from the SSEC Tropical Website.

GeoColor imagery overlain with GLM observations, below (source), show occasional GLM lightning strikes within the convective cluster surrounding the tropical invest.

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For more information on this system, refer to the National Hurricane Center and CIMSS Tropical Weather websites.

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A toggle between Suomi-NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images valid at 1335 UTC on 27 June 2024 (above) showed a severe-warned thunderstorm just west of Noatak, Alaska. This thunderstorm — located north of the Arctic Circle — exhibited a cloud-top infrared brightness temperature as cold as -52.69ºC.

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (below) showed the thunderstorm activity as it moved northwest past the Noatak (PAWN) area and continued to approach the coast.

A cursor sample of GOES-18 Infrared (10.3 µm) cloud-top brightness temperature along with the corresponding Cloud Top Height and Cloud Top Temperature derived products at 1418 UTC on 27 June (below) depicted values of -42.13ºC, 25627.90 ft and -44.59ºC, respectively.

For a cloud top height of 30000 ft, the GOES-18 parallax correction near Noatak would be 58-60 km (36-37 mi) to the south-southeast (below).

Examining a plot of rawinsonde data from Kotzebue, Alaska (PAOT) at 1200 UTC on 27 June (below), the GOES-18 cloud-top infrared brightness temperature of -42.13ºC was near the altitude of the Most Unstable air parcel’s Equilibrium Level (EL) at 28984 ft or 8.8 km — while the -52.69ºC sensed by Suomi-NPP suggested an EL overshoot of about 1 km.

https://twitter.com/Climatologist49/status/1806400138057048540

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Author’s note: given that I’m retiring at the end of the day, this likely represents my last CIMSS Satellite Blog post. When I started this blog back in August 2006, it was really just meant to slowly build myself a library of cases from which I could easily borrow imagery to use in developing VISIT and SHyMet distance learning modules. As it grew in size and scope, I was quite surprised how popular the blog became, both on a national and an international level. The many comments that we received from our blog readers (which often included NWS forecasters and people from academia) always led to fruitful dialogue, and some great blog posts. Over time, more CIMSS authors joined in, which helped to diversify the blog content.

Fast-forward 18 years to 2024, and after growing to over 4000 posts, I feel quite satisfied with what the CIMSS Satellite Blog has become. Our readers learn from it, and we’ve received countless requests for permission to use blog post images/animations (which we happily grant). Hopefully this blog even helps to spark the imagination of future meteorologists-to-be (just like the glossy paper copy of a satellite image did for me, received while attending an open house at the NWS forecast office in Sioux Falls SD, at the impressionable age of 13).

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