{"id":15100,"date":"2014-03-11T23:59:02","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T23:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=15100"},"modified":"2014-03-19T23:39:52","modified_gmt":"2014-03-19T23:39:52","slug":"dust-storm-over-the-central-and-southern-high-plains-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/15100","title":{"rendered":"Dust storm over the central and southern High Plains region"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"GOES-13<\/a>

GOES-13 0.63 \u00c2\u00b5m visible channel images (click to play animation)<\/p><\/div>\n

AWIPS images of GOES-13 0.63 \u00c2\u00b5m visible channel data (above; click image to play animation)<\/strong><\/em> show the hazy signature of an intense dust storm (sometimes locally referred to as a “haboob”) created by strong winds in the wake of a southward-moving cold front<\/strong><\/a> on 11 March 2014<\/strong><\/a>. This blowing dust reduced surface visibility to zero in parts of southwestern Kansas (where there were wind gusts of 59 mph),<\/em> causing several traffic accidents. At Amarillo, Texas (KAMA) the wind gusted to 60 mph, and visibility was reduced to 0.25 mile at times. A pilot report<\/strong><\/a> indicated that the top of the blowing dust was as high as 11,000 feet over the Oklahoma panhandle region.<\/p>\n

A sequence of Terra\/Aqua MODIS and Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color Red\/Green\/Blue (RGB) images visualized using the SSEC RealEarth<\/strong><\/a> web map server (below)<\/strong><\/em> showed the southward advancement of the lighter tan colored areas of blowing dust.<\/p>\n

\"Terra\/Aqua<\/a>

Terra\/Aqua MODIS and Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color RGB images<\/p><\/div>\n

A signal of the airborne dust (cyan color enhancement)<\/em> was also seen on Terra\/Aqua MODIS images of the 11-12 \u00c2\u00b5m “reverse absorption<\/strong><\/a>” IR difference product (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS 11-12 \u00c2\u00b5m “reverse absorption” IR difference product<\/p><\/div>\n

GOES-13 6.5 \u00c2\u00b5m water vapor channel images (below; click image to play animation)<\/strong><\/em> showed the development of a “cirrus bloom” over far northeastern New Mexico as the surface cold front and blowing dust moved through that region. It is interesting to note that there was a pilot report<\/strong><\/a>\u00c2\u00a0of severe turbulence at an altitude of 45,000 feet around that time (reportedly due to a mountain wave) — this raises the question as to whether a vertically-propagating wave generated by the strong cold front might have caused that high-altitude turbulence.<\/p>\n

\"GOES-13<\/a>

GOES-13 6.5 \u00c2\u00b5m water vapor channel images, with pilot reports of turbulence (click to play animation)<\/p><\/div>\n

Additional satellite images of this event can be found on the Wide World of SPoRT<\/strong><\/a> blog.<\/p>\n

===== 12 March Update =====<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Suomi<\/a>

Suomi NPP VIIRS 0.7 \u00c2\u00b5m Day\/Night Band image, with surface observations and frontal analysis<\/p><\/div>\n

During the subsequent night-time hours, a Suomi NPP VIIRS 0.7 \u00c2\u00b5m Day\/Night Band image at 08:35 UTC or 2:35 AM local time (above)<\/strong><\/em> displayed a signature of the airborne dust over far southwestern Texas — the glow of the city lights below the dust layer was more diffuse than in dust-free areas farther to the east in central Texas. Also note that an undular bore<\/strong><\/a> had formed along the cold frontal boundary near the coast of southeast Texas.<\/p>\n

A comparison of the VIIRS Day\/Night Band image with a MODIS 11-12 \u00c2\u00b5m image (below)<\/strong><\/em> confirmed the presence of airborne dust over southwestern Texas. As in the MODIS example above, the brighter cyan color enhancement was a signal of dust.<\/p>\n

\"Suomi<\/a>

Suomi NPP VIIRS 0.7 \u00c2\u00b5m Day\/Night Band and MODIS 11-12 \u00c2\u00b5m IR difference product images<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AWIPS images of GOES-13 0.63 \u00c2\u00b5m visible channel data (above; click image to play animation) show the hazy signature of an intense dust storm (sometimes locally referred to as a “haboob”) created by strong winds in the wake of a southward-moving cold front on 11 March 2014. This blowing dust reduced surface visibility to zero […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":15101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,21,11,12,53,45,49,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air-quality","category-aviation","category-goes-13","category-modis","category-real-earth","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images","category-suomi_npp","category-viirs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15100"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15181,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15100\/revisions\/15181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}