GOES-13 SRSO visible images (centered just south of Amarillo, Texas)

For testing purposes, the GOES-13 satellite was placed into Super Rapid Scan Operations (SRSO) mode on 11 April 2010. In SRSO mode, images are available as frequently as every 1 minute during certain time periods. McIDAS images of GOES-13 0.65 µm visible channel data centered just south of Amarillo, Texas (above; also available as a QuickTime animation) showed the development of deep convection that formed a nice arc-shaped outflow boundary which produced some gusty surface winds (as high as 47 mph at Amarillo TX KAMA, and 32 mph at Clovis NM KCVN) — then some of the thunderstorms later dropped hail up to 1.75 inches in diameter in the northern Texas Panhandle region (after dark, additional storms produced hail up to 2.0 inches in diameter). Note the appearance of a number of overshooting tops, which cast small shadows on the tops of the cloud anvil regions.

Farther to the southeast, GOES-13 visible images centered just southwest of Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas (below; also available as a QuickTime animation) revealed what appeared to be an undular bore that was propagating southwestward through the low-level stratus cloud deck that was covering that area. The passage of this undular bore did not seem to have much of an impact on the surface wind direction, suggesting that the wave was being ducted within a temperature inversion aloft (near the altitude of the cloud deck). The Fort Worth TX 12 UTC rawinsonde data did reveal the presence of some strong low-level inversions.

Such frequent rapid scan imaging will be routinely available with the ABI instrument on the upcoming GOES-R satellite, scheduled to be launched in 2015.

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250-meter resolution MODIS true color and false color images (centered near Marquette, Michigan)

250-meter resolution MODIS true color and false color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) images from the SSEC MODIS Today site showed that significant snow cover remained in parts of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (above) and also in parts of northeastern Wisconsin (below) on 09 April 2010. Snow cover appears white on the true color images, but cyan on the false color images.

Total snowfall amounts from the 07-08 April 2010 storm were as high as 10.2 inches near Marquette, Michigan and 5.8 inches at Green Bay, Wisconsin. On the morning of 09 April, the snow depth that still remained on the ground included 8 inches at Marquette in Michigan and 5 inches near Green Bay in Wisconsin. The 5.8 inches that fell at Green Bay was the 9th greatest snowfall on record for the month of April.

250-meter resolution MODIS true color and false color images (centered near Green Bay, Wisconsin)

MODIS false color RGB images — created using AWIPS images of the MODIS 0.65 µm visible and 2.1 µm near-IR “snow/ice detection” channels — revealed how quickly the snow cover (which appeared as darker shades of red) was melting during the short amount of time between the 17:10 UTC and 18:54 UTC images (below). Patches of cirrus cloud moving eastward across the northern part of the images (as well as portions of the supercooled water droplet cloud deck that was beginning to glaciate to the east) took on a light pink shade in the RGB images. This particular image example offers a glimpse at the type of RGB image capability that should be available with the upcoming AWIPS II software.

Similar near-IR “snow/ice detection” channels will be available on the ABI instrument aboard the GOES-R satellite (scheduled for launch in 2015).

MODIS false color RGB images (17:10 UTC and 18:54 UTC)

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GOES 3.9 µm, MODIS 3.7 µm, and POES AVHRR 3.8 µm shortwave IR images

AWIPS images of the 4-km resolution GOES-12 3.9 µm, the 1-km resolution MODIS 3.7 µm, and the 1-km resolution POES AVHRR 3.8 µm shortwave IR images (above; click image to enlarge) showed that there were a large number of fire “hot spots” (red to yellow colors) across parts of Kansas and Oklahoma on 08 April 2010. The majority of these fires appeared  to be in the Flint Hills region — likely the annual prescribed burns that cattle farmers perform in order to remove thatch and weeds that compete with the native grasses, to improve the range land grasses for livestock grazing.

===== 09 April Update =====

On the following day, MODIS true color imagery (below, viewed using Google Earth) showed that the ongoing fire activity was beginning to create extensive areas of smoke aloft from northern Oklahoma to eastern Kansas. There were also some large and very dense smoke plumes seen farther to the east, over portions of Arkansas and Missouri.

MODIS true color imagery (visualized using Google Earth)

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First official GOES-15 Sounder visible image (click to enlarge)

The first official GOES-15 Sounder visible image (above) became available starting at 17:30 UTC on 08 April 2010. For more details on the first GOES-15 Imager instrument visible images, see the CIMSS Satellite blog, the SSEC Spotlight, and the NOAA News pages. GOES-15 (GOES-P) is the final spacecraft in the GOES N/O/P series.

The GOES-15 will go through its post launch science test during the Summer of 2010 — the first IR images from the GOES-15 sounder are expected in late April of 2010.

Sounder images and products from the other GOES satellites can be found at the CIMSS GOES Realtime Derived Products site.

First and second GOES-15 Sounder visible images

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