![\"GOES-17](\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2020\/03\/200327_goes17_ozoneBand12_AK_anim.gif\")
<\/a>GOES-17 “Ozone” (9.61 \u00b5m)<\/em> images, with rawinsonde sites plotted in yellow [click to play animation | MP4<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/div>GOES-17 (GOES-West)<\/em> “Ozone” (9.61 \u00b5m<\/strong><\/a>) images (above)<\/strong><\/em> revealed waves propagating northwestward over northern Alaska, northern Yukon and the adjacent Beaufort Sea during the pre-dawn hours on 27 March 2020. That area was too illuminated by either aurora borealis or the rising sun — so Suomi NPP VIIRS Day\/Night Band (0.7 \u00b5m) imagery<\/strong><\/a> could not confirm the presence of mesospheric airglow waves (see this blog post<\/strong><\/a> for some examples).<\/p>\n A plot of the GOES-17 “Ozone” spectral band weighting function<\/strong><\/a> — calculated using 12 UTC rawinsonde data<\/strong><\/a> from Fairbanks, Alaska — showed a peak contribution from within the stratosphere at the 39 hPa pressure level, corresponding to an altitude around 21 km (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n Plot of GOES-17 “Ozone” (9.61 um)<\/em> weighting function, calculated using 12 UTC rawinsonde data from Fairbanks, Alaska [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>The curious aspect of these waves was their northwestward propagation — rawinsonde data from 3 sites across the region (below)<\/strong><\/em> indicated that the winds aloft within the upper troposphere and throughout the stratosphere were strong northwesterly, which meant the waves were moving against<\/strong> the ambient flow. Lacking a coherent, science-based explanation for these wave features, this blog post earns its place in the “What the heck is this?” category.<\/p>\n<\/a>