{"id":60408,"date":"2024-07-24T19:40:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T19:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=60408"},"modified":"2024-07-25T13:52:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T13:52:07","slug":"how-small-of-a-rocket-signature-can-goes-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/60408","title":{"rendered":"How Small of a Rocket Signature can GOES “see”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are many examples of NOAA<\/a>‘s GOES<\/a> ABI<\/a> detecting the spectral signatures of large rockets<\/a>. These include GOES-S<\/a>, GOES-T<\/a>, GOES-U<\/a>, GOES-U boosters<\/a>, Starliner<\/a>, Falcon 9<\/a>, Ariane<\/a>, Himawari-9<\/a>, Antares<\/a>, etc. If the rocket is large enough, there is often a signal in each of the 16 ABI bands. Of course the timing of the ABI scan needs to correspond to the times of the rocket’s brightest \/ hottest phases, which is more likely if there’s a meso-scale sector covering the area of interest, either at 1-min or 30-second cadence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smaller rockets, such as the Firefly, may be be an order of magnitude darker\/cooler compared to a Falcon, given their very different maximum thrust. The Firefly maximum rocket thrust is approximately 165,000 lbf<\/a> (pound-force) [736.1 kN] and the Falcon 9 is about 1,700,000 lbf<\/a> [7,000 kN].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firefly on July 4th<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Late on July 3rd (local time, early July 4th UTC) there was a Firefly rocket launch<\/a> from Vandenberg<\/a> Air Force base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?#ICYMI<\/a>: Firefly's #NoiseofSummer<\/a> Alpha rocket lifted off from SLC-2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:04pm PDT July 3\/12:04am EDT July 4.

On board were 8?? small payloads for NASA\u2019s CubeSat Launch Initiative! pic.twitter.com\/qRCLVFceGI<\/a><\/p>— NASA's Launch Services Program (@NASA_LSP) July 5, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>