{"id":40390,"date":"2021-03-26T04:39:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T04:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=40390"},"modified":"2021-12-27T16:32:47","modified_gmt":"2021-12-27T16:32:47","slug":"satellite-signature-of-the-falcon-9-re-entry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/40390","title":{"rendered":"Satellite signature of the Falcon 9 re-entry"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_40392\" style=\"width: 635px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/03\/G17_Band7_0358_0359_0400step.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40392\" class=\"wp-image-40392\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/03\/G17_Band7_0358_0359_0400step.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\"><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-40392\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">GOES-17 Band 7 (3.9 \u00b5m) imagery at 03:58:27, 03:59:27 and 04:00:27 on 26 March 2021 (Click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Falcon 9 rocket that was launched on 4 March did not achieve orbit and re-entered the atmosphere on 26 March at just before 0400 UTC (Correction:&nbsp; Falcon 9 achieved orbit.&nbsp; What did not occur as planned was the 2nd stage de-orbit burn&nbsp; The low orbit of the 2nd stage allowed it to re-enter on 26 March, and that is what GOES-17 detected.&nbsp; Thanks to Mark &#8212; see his comment bel0w &#8212;&nbsp; for the correction!)&nbsp; GOES-17&#8217;s ABI detected the re-entry heat signature off the coast of Oregon, at the very edge of the Mesoscale Sector 1, at 03:59:27 on 26 March 2021, as shown above in the Band 7 (3.9 \u00b5m) images at 03:58:27, 03:59:27 and 04:00:27. The heat signature was also detectable <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/03\/G17_Band6_0358_0359_0400step.gif\">in the Band 6 (2.2 \u00b5m) imagery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Many thanks to Chris Schmidt, CIMSS, for finding this subtle signature in the imagery!&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/planet4589\/status\/1375301028514500615\">This tweet<\/a> from Jonathan McDowell includes many ground-based video captures of the re-entry.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>The image below, from Tim Schmit (NOAA\/STAR), shows the three band 7 (3.9 \u00b5m) images, color-enhanced and magnified.&nbsp; A similar image for band 6 (2.2 \u00b5m) is <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2021\/03\/3PANEL_26MARCH2021_B6.GIF\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_40403\" style=\"width: 635px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/03\/3PANEL_26MARCH2021_B7.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40403\" class=\"wp-image-40403\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/03\/3PANEL_26MARCH2021_B7.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"625\" height=\"375\"><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-40403\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">GOES-17 ABI Band 3.9 \u00b5m imagery (Mesoscale Sector 1) at 0358 UTC (top), 0359 UTC (middle) and 0400 UTC (bottom) (click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Scott Bachmeier created this 6-channel (Bands 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 at 0.64 \u00b5m, 0.86\u00b5m, 1.37 \u00b5m, 1.61 \u00b5m, 2.25 \u00b5m and 3.9 \u00b5m, respectively) <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2021\/03\/210326_goes17_visible_nearInfrared_shortwaveInfrared_Falcon9_re-entry_anim.gif\">3-step animation<\/a> centered on the re-entry time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Falcon 9 rocket that was launched on 4 March did not achieve orbit and re-entered the atmosphere on 26 March at just before 0400 UTC (Correction:&nbsp; Falcon 9 achieved orbit.&nbsp; What did not occur as planned was the 2nd stage de-orbit burn&nbsp; The low orbit of the 2nd stage allowed it to re-enter on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":40403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,80,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interpretation","category-goes-17","category-rocket-signatures"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40390","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\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40390"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43998,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40390\/revisions\/43998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}