{"id":57709,"date":"2024-03-14T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T13:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=57709"},"modified":"2024-03-19T23:46:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T23:46:53","slug":"spacex-starship-test-flight-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/57709","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX Starship Test Flight 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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1-minute GOES-16 images of ABI spectral bands 01-16 and a Rocket Plume RGB, from 1324-1329 UTC on 14 March; KBRO denotes the Brownsville TX rawinsonde site [click to play animated GIF | MP4<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/div>1-minute Mesoscale Domain\u00a0 Sector<\/strong><\/a> GOES-16 (GOES-East)<\/em> images from all 16 of the ABI<\/strong><\/a> spectral bands plus a Rocket Plume RGB<\/strong><\/a> (above)<\/strong><\/em> displayed signatures of the SpaceX Starship 3<\/strong><\/a> rocket that was launched from the Starbase facility in Boca Chica Beach, Texas at 1325 UTC on 14 March 2024. During the first 4 minutes post-launch, the Stage 1 rocket booster’s condensation cloud was evident in images from all 16 spectral bands, as it began to drift slowly eastward away from the Texas coast \u2014 and the ascending rocket booster\u2019s thermal signature was seen in Near-Infrared and Infrared spectral bands 04-16, as well as the Rocket Plume RGB.<\/p>\n

In Band 8 (Upper-level Water Vapor) imagery, note the change in exhaust plume shape with time and atmospheric layer<\/strong><\/a>: at early altitudes of 20-50 km (where the Stratosphere had more density, and therefore higher ambient pressure), the Stage 1 booster plume was more linear \u2014 but after the 1328 UTC “hot stage separation” as the Stage 2 rocket reached higher altitudes of 70-80 km (where the Mesosphere was much less dense, with lower ambient pressure) the plume was able to expand outward into more of a curved “boomerang” shape beginning at 1329 UTC<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

A close-up view using a sequence of three 16-panel displays of all GOES-16 ABI spectral bands (below)<\/strong><\/em> showed that a warm thermal signature of the hot stage separation process was apparent at 1328 UTC in Near-Infrared bands 04-06 and Infrared bands 07-16 (just to the right of center in each image panel).<\/p>\n

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16-panel display of all GOES-16 ABI spectral bands, every minute from 1327-1329 UTC on 14 March [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n

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Interleaved GOES-16 Mesoscale Sector and CONUS Sector Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 \u00b5m) images, from 1325-1332 UTC on 14 March [click to play animated GIF | MP4<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/div>A larger-scale view using interleaved GOES-16 Mesoscale Sector and CONUS Sector Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 \u00b5m<\/strong><\/a>) images (above)<\/strong><\/em> allowed the Stage 2 rocket exhaust signature to be followed for about 7 minutes post-launch as it moved eastward across the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1-minute Mesoscale Domain\u00a0 Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) images from all 16 of the ABI spectral bands plus a Rocket Plume RGB (above) displayed signatures of the SpaceX Starship 3 rocket that was launched from the Starbase facility in Boca Chica Beach, Texas at 1325 UTC on 14 March 2024. During the first 4 minutes post-launch, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":57714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,45,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goes-16","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images","category-rocket-signatures"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57709","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=57709"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57838,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57709\/revisions\/57838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}