{"id":69171,"date":"2026-02-25T23:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T23:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=69171"},"modified":"2026-02-26T23:10:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:10:59","slug":"aircraft-glaciation-trails-over-southern-lake-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/69171","title":{"rendered":"Aircraft glaciation trails over southern Lake Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div style=\"width: 1610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/02\/260225_goes19_trueColorRGB_Lake_Michigan_aircraft_glaciation_trails_anim.mp4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/02\/GOES-19_ABI_RadC_true_color_2026056_220617Z.png\" width=\"1600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">5-minute GOES-19 True Color RGB images, from 2026-2256 UTC on 25 February [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 <em>(GOES-East)<\/em>\u00a0True Color RGB images created using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/software\/geo2grid\/\"><strong>Geo2Grid<\/strong><\/a> <em><strong>(above)<\/strong><\/em> showed aircraft glaciation trails drifting east-southeastward over southern Lake Michigan on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/dailywxmap\/index_20260225.html\"><strong>25 February 2026<\/strong><\/a>. As aircraft ascended\/descended through a thin cloud layer composed of supercooled water droplets, additional cooling from wake turbulence (<a href=\"http:\/\/journals.ametsoc.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1175\/2009BAMS2905.1\"><strong>reference<\/strong><\/a>) &#8212; and\/or particles from jet engine exhaust acting as ice condensation nuclei &#8212; caused the small supercooled water cloud droplets to transform into larger ice crystals (many of which then fell from the cloud layer as snow).<\/p>\n<p>GOES-19 <a href=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/QuickGuide_DayCloudPhaseDistinction_final_v2.pdf\"><strong>Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB<\/strong><\/a> images <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em> revealed that the cloud layer which the aircraft penetrated was composed of supercooled water droplets (shades of violet to purple) &#8212; while the ice crystal aircraft glaciation trails exhibited shades of green.<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"width: 1610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/02\/260225_goes19_dayCloudPhaseDistinctionRGB_Lake_Michigan_aircraft_glaciation_trails_anim.mp4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/02\/GOES-19_ABI_RadC_cloud_phase_distinction_2026056_220617Z.png\" width=\"1600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">5-minute GOES-19 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images, from 2026-2256 UTC on 25 February [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>Cursor samples of the GOES-19 <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/OCLOFactSheetPDFs\/ABIQuickGuide_BaselineCloudTopTemperature.pdf\"><strong>Cloud Top Temperature<\/strong><\/a> (CTT) derived product at 2 locations along the undisturbed supercooled water droplet cloud between aircraft glaciation trails <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em> showed that while those CTT values were quite cold, they were still a few degrees warmer than the -40\u00baC temperature required to assure spontaneous freezing via homogeneous nucleation.<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"width: 3034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/02\/260225_2206utc_goes19_visible_cloudTopTemperature_anim.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/02\/260225_2206utc_goes19_visible_cloudTopTemperature_anim.gif\" width=\"3024\" height=\"1964\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">GOES-19 Visible image (0.64 \u00b5m, left) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m) image with an overlay of the Cloud Top Temperature (CTT) derived product (right), with cursor samples of the CTT at 2 locations between aircraft glaciation trails [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>In a comparison of GOES-19 Shortwave Infrared brightness temperatures over an undisturbed portion of the supercooled water droplet cloud vs within an aircraft glaciation trail <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em>, enhanced solar reflection off the small spherical supercooled droplets produced a 3.9 \u00b5m temperature that was about 11\u00baC warmer than that of the ice crystals within a glaciation trail.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 3034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/02\/260225_2206utc_goes19_shortwaveInfrared_anim.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/02\/260225_2206utc_goes19_shortwaveInfrared_anim.gif\" width=\"3024\" height=\"1964\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">GOES-19 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m) image at 2206 UTC on 25 February, with cursor samples of infrared brightness temperatures in the undisturbed supercooled cloud (darker green) and within an aircraft glaciation trail (cyan) [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East)\u00a0True Color RGB images created using Geo2Grid (above) showed aircraft glaciation trails drifting east-southeastward over southern Lake Michigan on 25 February 2026. As aircraft ascended\/descended through a thin cloud layer composed of supercooled water droplets, additional cooling from wake turbulence (reference) &#8212; and\/or particles from jet engine exhaust acting as ice [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":69172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,132,159,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation","category-geo2grid","category-goes-19","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69171","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=69171"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69190,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69171\/revisions\/69190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}