{"id":58400,"date":"2024-04-11T14:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=58400"},"modified":"2024-04-15T15:54:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T15:54:15","slug":"satellite-signatures-of-the-spacex-ussf-68-mission-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/58400","title":{"rendered":"Satellite signatures of the SpaceX USSF-68 Mission launch"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

1-minute GOES-18 images of ABI spectral bands 01-16 and a Rocket Plume RGB, from 1424-1435 UTC on 11 April [click to play animated GIF | MP4<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/div>\n

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector<\/strong><\/a> GOES-18 (GOES-West)<\/em> images from all 16 of the ABI<\/strong><\/a> spectral bands — in addition to a Rocket Plume RGB<\/strong><\/a> (above)<\/strong><\/em> displayed signatures of the SpaceX USSF-62<\/strong><\/a> Mission (to deploy the new WSF-M<\/strong><\/a> satellite) Falcon 9 rocket that was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California at 1425 UTC on 11 April 2024<\/strong><\/a>. A warm thermal signature of the Stage 1 rocket booster was evident in images from all of the Near-Infrared and Infrared spectral bands (Bands 03-16) and the RGB imagery as it quickly moved east-northward from the launch site \u2014 and either a somewhat-bright reflectance signature or a relatively cool thermal signature of the Stage 1 rocket booster’s condensation cloud was seen in most of the spectral bands as it drifted slowly eastward from the launch site (evaporating quickly in the dry atmosphere).<\/p>\n

In addition, a warm thermal signature of the Stage 1 rocket re-entry burn was apparent at 1431 UTC<\/strong><\/a> (just northeast of Vandenberg KVBG) to begin slowing its descent in order to make a landing back at Vandenberg.<\/p>\n

One interesting aspect seen in Upper-level Water Vapor (Band 08) and Rocket Plume RGB images after Stage 2 rocket booster ignition (which occurred around 1427 UTC — at that time<\/strong><\/a>, the peak 3.9 \u00b5m infrared brightness temperature reached 71.81\u00baC — was the rapid southward expansion of the water-vapor-rich rocket plume. A plot of rawinsonde data from Vandenberg, California (below)<\/strong><\/em> showed that the high-altitude transition to general northerly flow began at altitudes of 20-30 km (the 40 hPa pressure level and above).<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Plot of rawinsonde data from Vandenberg, California at 1200 UTC on 11 April [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>With GOES-16 (GOES-East)<\/em> images (below)<\/strong><\/em>, although the satellite viewing angle was larger (62.34 degrees, vs 43.82 degrees for GOES-18), similar rocket signatures were observed in many of the ABI spectral bands and the RGB — albeit displaced to the west, due to parallax associated with the high-altitude features.<\/p>\n

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5-minute GOES-16 images of ABI spectral bands 01-16 and a Rocket Plume RGB, from 1421-1431 UTC on 11 April [click to play animated GIF | MP4<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) images from all 16 of the ABI spectral bands — in addition to a Rocket Plume RGB (above) displayed signatures of the SpaceX USSF-62 Mission (to deploy the new WSF-M satellite) Falcon 9 rocket that was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California at 1425 UTC on 11 April […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":58410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,114,45,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goes-16","category-goes-18","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images","category-rocket-signatures"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58400","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=58400"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58524,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58400\/revisions\/58524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}