GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel images (click to play animation)

After being started by lightning on 11 August, the Happy Camp Fire Complex (Inciweb) continued to burn in far northern California on 03 September 2014. McIDAS images of GOES-15 (GOES-West) 0.63 µm visible channel data (above; click image to play animation) initially revealed the smoke which had settled into the area valleys during the previous night, and then showed a new smoke plume which drifted southwestward off the coast, then turned to the left and moved southward along the adjacent nearshore waters.  The smoke moved over Arcata/Eureka airport (KACV), at one point reducing the surface visibility to 6 miles.

As the fie continued to burn into the following night, an AWIPS II image of Suomi NPP VIIRS 3.74 shortwave IR channel data at 10:21 UTC (3:21 AM local time) showed the cluster of fire hot spots (black to yellow to red pixels), while the corresponding VIIRS 0.7 µm Day/Night Band image showed that the bright glow of the fire complex was as large and as intense as that from many of the larger cities in the region.

Suomi NPP VIIRS 3.74 µm shortwave IR and 0.7 µm Day/Night Band images

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NASA Global Hawk flight path, with Cloud Height, Tropical Overshooting Tops, and Lightning data (click to play animation)

The NASA Global Hawk aircraft are once again being used to study tropical cyclones during the 2014 season. As part of CIMSS participation in GOES-R Proving Ground activities, a Global Hawk flight path tool was developed to display important parameters such as ACHA Cloud Top Height, Tropical Overshooting Tops, and lightning (above; click image to play animation). Global Hawk pilots use this product to navigate the aircraft around locations of potential turbulence.

GOES-13 0.63 µm visible channel images (click to play animation)

To support the Global Hawk investigation of Tropical Storm Dolly on 02 September 2014, the GOES-13 satellite was placed into Rapid Scan Operations (RSO) mode to provide images at 5-7 minute intervals. GOES-13 0.63 µm visible channel images (above; click to play animation) and 10.7 µm IR channel images (below; click to play animation) are shown which cover the 3-hour period of the Global Hawk flight segment shown above. There is evidence of overshooting tops seen in the visible imagery, with cloud-top IR brightness temperatures of -80º C and colder (purple color enhancement).

GOES-13 10.7 µm IR channel images (click to play animation)

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Suomi NPP VIIRS Day Night Band (0.70 µm) image (click to enlarge)

Tropical Storm Dolly has formed in the western Gulf of Mexico. The Suomi NPP VIIRS Day Night Band imagery, above, shows the exposed low-level swirl of the storm (then still a tropical depression). North-northwesterly shear (shown here, from this site) means the deep convection (shown below) is displaced to the east of south of the the low-level circulation (click here for a toggle between the Day Night Band and the 11.45µm imagery). Cloud-top IR brightness temperatures from VIIRS were as cold as -87º C. ASCAT winds from 0230 UTC show a region of tropical storm-force winds associated with convection east and north of the circulation center.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Infrared (11.45 µm) image (click to enlarge)

Early-morning visible imagery from GOES-13, below, shows the large area of convection over the southern Gulf. The NHC-reported positions of the storm at 0900 UTC and 1500 UTC (22.6º N, 94.8º W and 23.4º N, 96.5º, respectively) are indicated by the red boxes on the images. Strong convection just south of the surface circulation developed at sunrise, obscuring the low-level swirl. That strong convection is especially apparent in the GOES-13 10.7 imagery, at bottom. GOES IR Brightness Temperatures were as cold as -84º C in the animation. (For more on Dolly from the National Hurricane Center, see this link).

GOES-13 Visible Imagery (0.63 µm) (click to animate)

GOES-13 Infrared Imagery (10.7 µm) (click to animate)

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Global composite of IR images, with tropical cyclone center points (click to play Animated GIF)

It is rather rare to have no named tropical cyclones anywhere on the globe on the first day of September, but that was the case on 01 September 2014. A sequence of hourly global composite IR images from the SSEC RealEarth web map server (Animated GIF | MP4 movie file | YouTube video) showed the void of tropical activity — until Tropical Depression 5 formed late in the day in the Gulf of Mexico. This feature later became Tropical Storm Dolly early on 02 September.

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