GOES-15: first full disk visible image (click image to enlarge)

The first official GOES-15 full disk visible image (above) became available at 17:33 UTC on 06 April 2010. For more details, see the SSEC Spotlight and the NOAA News pages. GOES-15 (GOES-P) is the final spacecraft in the GOES N/O/P series — the next quantum leap in GOES satellite capabilities will come with the launch of GOES-R in 2015. GOES-R will include the improved 16-channel Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI).

The GOES-15 satellite will go through its post launch science test during the Summer of 2010.

A few close-up views from this GOES-15 full disk visible image (plus some comparisons between the 17:33 UTC image and the following 18:02 UTC image) are shown below:

Northern Hudson Bay and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (showing some areas of ice-free water)

Frozen Lake Winnipeg in southern Manitoba, Canada

Cumulus development along a cold front in eastern Kansas

Within a few hours, the cumulus clouds seen forming along the cold front in eastern Kansas (above) developed into severe thunderstorms that produced hail up to 1.75 inch in diameter and wind gusts to 70 mph.

San Francisco Bay and the snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains

Smoke plumes from small fires burning in the Florida panhandle region

The small fires producing smoke plumes seen in the Florida panhandle region (above) were but 3 of a large number of fires burning across the Southeast US on 06 April, according to the CIMSS Wildfire-ABBA product and the NOAA Hazards Mapping System product.

Smoke drifting northward across the southern Gulf of Mexico

Stratocumulus deck over the Rio Grande Valley region, with cirrus drifting overhead

Saharan dust blowing westward over the tropical Atlantic Ocean

Fingers of fog reaching into the valleys along the western slopes of the Andes in Chile

The center of a large cyclone in the South Pacific Ocean

Perhaps the most striking feature on the GOES-15 full disk visible image was the rather large cloud swirl associated with a cyclone located over the far southern portion of the South Pacific Ocean, west of the southern tip of South America (surface analysis). While it was large in size, it did not have access to a significant amount of moisture, as indicated by the MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product. A GOES-15 visible image close-up view of the center of the cyclone (above) showed the occluded front spiraling inward toward the center of the storm’s circulation.

GOES-11, GOES-15, GOES-13, and GOES-12 visible images (White Sands, NM)

Comparisons of visible images from GOES-11 (GOES-West), GOES-15, GOES-13, and GOES-12 (GOES-East) are shown for the White Sands, New Mexico area (above) and also for clouds with embedded convection producing precipitation over northern Iowa (below).

GOES-11, GOES-13, GOES-15, and GOES-12 visible images (northern Iowa)

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GOES-12 0.65 µm visible images

McIDAS images of the GOES-12 0.65 µm visible channel data (above) showed the development of large plumes of blowing dust that developed late in the day on 05 April 2010 as a result of very strong winds ahead of an advancing cold frontal boundary. Winds gusted as high as 70 mph in northeastern Arizona and 68 mph in southern Utah (reducing visibility to near zero in some areas, and forcing some road closures). The GOES-12 satellite had been placed into Rapid Scan Operations, allowing imagery to be available as frequently as every 5-10 minutes.

An AWIPS image of the POES AVHRR Cloud Top Height product (below) indicated that the tops of the blowing dust plumes in northeastern Arizona at 19:45 UTC (1:45 pm local time) were around 1-2 km.

POES AVHRR Cloud Top Height product

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Sequence of MODIS false color RGB images (March 08, 20, 27, and April 01)

A series of four 250-meter resolution MODIS false color images — 08, 20, and 27 March, and 01 April 2010 — from the SSEC MODIS Today site (above) show portions of the Connecticut River (which runs north to south through the center of the images) becoming swollen and flooding the adjacent low-lying areas in central Connecticut. In these MODIS false color images, water appears as dark shades of blue, while snow cover has a cyan appearance.

A comparison of the 250-meter resolution MODIS true color and false color images from 01 April 2010 (below) reveals increased levels of turbidity along portions of some of the rivers, due to increased run-off during the series of 3 heavy precipitation events across the region during the 13-31 March 2010 period.

MODIS true color and false color images (01 April 2010)

MODIS true color images (below, viewed using Google Earth) showed that the most pronounced areas of flooding along the Connecticut River were just to the north and south of Hartford.

MODIS true color images (viewed using Google Earth)

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First TIROS-1 image (01 April 1960)

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first image from the meteorological satellite TIROS-1, which was available on 01 April 1960 (above). While TIROS-1 was only operational for 78 days, it provided a number of images of the Earth and cloud systems (including the first image of a tropical cyclone, over the South Pacific Ocean on 10 April 1960).

To demonstrate how satellite imagery has improved over the past 50 years, one only has to examine McIDAS images of NOAA GOES-13 visible channel data (below) over the same general region as shown on the first TIROS-1 image (Maine, and the Canadian Maritime provinces). While swirling high-level clouds occupy most of the satellite scene on 01 April 2010, you can still see very good details of low cloud features, such as the stratus deck beginning to erode over parts of Maine and New Hampshire. One particular feature of interest is the bright white snow-covered peak of Mount Katahdin in north-central Maine (which remains stationary in the images, as the clouds around it erode) — this geographic feature has a peak elevation of 5,268 ft (1,605.7 m), and marks the northern point of the Appalachian Trail. Also, if you look closely, you can also see a small ice floe moving slowly westward across open waters of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, just south of the coast of Quebec (near the upper right corner of the images) — sea ice in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence was also seen in some of the earliest TIROS-1 images.

Note that GOES-13 will replace GOES-12 as the operational GOES-East satellite on 14 April 2010.

GOES-13 visible images (01 April 2010)

Polar orbiting (POES) satellite imagery has also improved dramatically, as can be seen on a NOAA-17 AVHRR false color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) image (using AVHRR channels 01/02/04) centered over Maine on 01 April 2010 (below). Again, note the brighter white snow-covered peak of Mount Katahdin, located to the northwest of Millinocket (station identifier KMLT). The widespread low clouds appear brighter white on the false color image, while high cirrus clouds in the northwestern corner of the image take on more of a light blue tint. Bare (snow-free) ground in southwestern Maine appears as shades of green.

NOAA-17 AVHRR false color RGB image (01 April 2010)

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