GOES-16 (GOES-East) Visible images (above) showed the hazy signature of a narrow plume of blowing dust that developed across West Texas on 30 December 2024. Lofted by strong NW winds behind a dryline, this blowing dust briefly reduced the surface visibility to 3.5 miles at Big Spring (KBPG) and 7 miles at Snyder (KSNK).

True Color RGB and Dust RGB images — created using Geo2Grid — from GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) (above) and GOES-16 (below) revealed that the blowing dust’s light magenta signature in Dust RGB imagery was apparent before its hazy tan signature became evident in True Color RGB imagery.

Also of note was the earlier appearance of the dust’s hazy tan signature in GOES-16 True Color RGB imagery compared to GOES-19, as seen in a toggle of 2101 UTC images (below). This was due to a larger (and thus more favorable) forward scattering geometry from GOES-16 (positioned farther east over the Equator at 75.2°W longitude) compared to GOES-19 (positioned at 89.5°W longitude, during its post-launch testing).

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5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (Preliminary/Non-operational) True Color RGB and Blowing Snow RGB images created using Geo2Grid (above) displayed a small patch of radiation fog over Lake Mendota that slowly dissipated during the morning hours on 25th December 2024 (the Blowing Snow RGB is a modified version of the Day Snow-Fog RGB, which uses higher spatial resolution Band 2 imagery in place of Band 3 as the Red component). Much of Lake Mendota was still ice-free (although some ice growth had occurred along parts of the shoreline) — but nocturnal radiational cooling allowed the surface air temperature at nearby airports to reach minimum values of 9ºF at Middleton (KC29) and 10ºF at Madison (KMSN). The Lake Mendota fog did briefly move inland across the southern and western edges of the lake.

5-minute GOES-16 (GOES-East) Visible images (below) showed the fog dissipating over the western half of Lake Mendota as surface air temperatures began to warm after sunrise.

UW-SSEC/AOS north-facing rooftop camera images (below) revealed multiple incursions of the Lake Mendota fog into the University of Wisconsin – Madison campus, located just south of the lake (both before and after sunrise).

Thanks to Tim Schmit (NOAA/NESDIS/STAR) for bringing this interesting case to our attention (and also taking ground truth photo1 and photo2 of the fog on campus).

Local #fog advection https://t.co/K4d9vjINEK; ?@NOAASatellites? #GOES16 Madison #WIwx ?@UWSSEC? ?@UWCIMSS? pic.twitter.com/njAjw4T97w

— Tim Schmit (@GOESguy) December 25, 2024

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5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and Fire Mask derived product images (above) displayed a pronounced thermal signature associated with an eruption in the Halema’uma’u crater (located within the Kilauea summit caldera) on the Big Island of Hawai’i, which began around 1220 UTC (2:20 AM HST) on 23rd December 2024. Yellow pixels in the Fire Mask product denoted 3.9 µm brightness temperatures that had reached 137.88ºC — the saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI Band 7 detectors — which first occurred at 1251 UTC, about 30 minutes after eruption onset.

Since the Kilauea eruption began during the nighttime hours, its thermal signature was also apparent in GOES-18 Near-Infrared 0.86 µm, 1.61 µm and 2.24 µm spectral bands (below).

GOES-18 True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below) showed the southwest transport of volcanic fog (vog) — a mixture of SO₂, CO₂ and water vapor — from the Kilauea eruption site.

GOES-18 SO2 RGB images from RealEarth (below) confirmed the presence of SO2 (lighter shades of cyan) within the vog plume that was drifting southwest from Kilauea — the cluster of dark blue pixels denoted the thermal anomaly associated with the eruption site.

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CSPP Geosphere imagery, above, (link for the latest animation) shows extensive snowcover over Wisconsin in the wake of the season’s first large-scale snowfall on 19-20 December. WFO MKX shows reported accumulations below (from their weather story). Note that Lake Winnebago south of Green Bay is ice-covered, but various other lakes (Mendota/Monona, Green Lake, Lake Geneva) in Wisconsin have not yet frozen.

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