{"id":7910,"date":"2011-04-28T22:14:14","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T22:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=7910"},"modified":"2020-05-20T02:01:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T02:01:15","slug":"tornado-damage-paths-evident-on-modis-imagery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/7910","title":{"rendered":"Tornado damage paths evident on MODIS and GOES imagery"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS 0.65 and 0.87 \u00b5m visible images (centered on Tuscaloosa, Alabama)<\/p><\/div>\n

A comparison of 250-meter resolution Aqua MODIS 0.65 \u00b5m and 0.87 \u00b5m visible channel images centered on Tuscaloosa, Alabama on 28 April 2011<\/strong><\/a> (above)<\/strong><\/em> showed signatures of a few of the larger and longer tornado damage paths from the historic tornado outbreak (SPC storm reports<\/strong><\/a>) that occurred on 27 April 2011<\/strong><\/a>. A collection of GOES, POES AVHRR, and MODIS images of the tornado outbreak are available on a separate CIMSS Satellite Blog post<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A comparison of before (17 April 2011)<\/em> and after (28 April 2011)<\/em> 250-meter resolution MODIS true color<\/strong><\/a> Red\/Green\/Blue (RGB) images from the SSEC MODIS Today<\/strong><\/a> site (below)<\/strong><\/em> also showed a few of the tornado damage paths — though some of the damage paths were not as evident as they were on the single-channel visible images above. In addition, another long tornado track can be seen across western Georgia.<\/p>\n

\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS true color images before (17 April) and after (28 April) the tornado outbreak<\/p><\/div>\n

Below is the same before\/after MODIS true color image comparison, viewed using Google Earth.<\/p>\n

\"Before<\/a>

Before (17 April) and after (28 April) MODIS true color images (viewed using Google Earth)<\/p><\/div>\n

A comparison of AWIPS images of 1-km resolution MODIS 0.65 \u00b5m visible channel data and the corresponding 1-km resolution Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) product (below)<\/strong><\/em> revealed that a few of the larger tornado damage paths were characterized by a slightly lower NDVI value (lighter green color),<\/em> due to the downed trees and damaged vegetation.<\/p>\n

\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS 0.65 \u00b5m visible image + MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index product<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the larger tornado damage tracks across northwestern Alabama was also apparent on GOES-13 0.63 \u00b5m visible channel imagery (below)<\/strong><\/em>. An animation helps to confirm that the feature is not a contrail or some other type of linear cloud feature (which would be moving in an animation, rather than stationary)<\/em>. While the north-south spatial resolution of the GOES imager visible detectors is 1.0 km at the satellite sub-point (over the Equator),<\/em> with the larger geostationary satellite viewing angle the north-south spatial resolution over northern Alabama is about 1.38 km.<\/p>\n

\"GOES-13<\/a>

GOES-13 visible images (centered along Mississippi\/Alabama border region)<\/p><\/div>\n

It is interesting to note that the larger tornado damage path which can been seen across northwestern Alabama on the GOES-13 visible image is very difficult to identify on the corresponding GOES-12 0.65 \u00b5m visible image (below)<\/strong><\/em>. This is due to a change is the spectral response function on the visible channel of the GOES-13 and later series of imagery instruments — for more details, see this CIMSS Satellite Blog post<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"GOES-13<\/a>

GOES-13 0.63 \u00b5m visible image (left) + GOES-12 0.65 \u00b5m visible image (right)<\/p><\/div>\n

Update 29 April 2011<\/strong>: A Terra MODIS pass from late morning on April 29th shows the damage paths more clearly through central Alabama. As the churned-up vegetation within the damage path slowly browns, the contrast to undamaged vegetation outside the damage path should increase, allowing for a clearer picture of the damage path. The bowtie-corrected MODIS imagery for visible channel 1 (0.65 microns, below)<\/strong><\/em> and visible Channel 2<\/a> show three lines of damage through central Alabama. (Here<\/a> is an animation of the two visible channels).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since this day was less cloudy than the previous, here is a better before (17 April)<\/em> versus after (29 April)<\/em> comparison of 250-meter resolution MODIS true color images from the SSEC MODIS Today<\/strong><\/a> site (below, viewed using Google Earth)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS true color images from before (17 April) and after (29 April)<\/p><\/div>\n

Update 30 April 2011:<\/strong> A few of the tornado damage paths across northern Alabama were also evident on an AWIPS image of the 1-km resolution MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) product (below)<\/em><\/strong>. The LST values within the damage paths were in the low to middle 80s F (darker red color enhancement),<\/em> compared to surrounding LST values in the upper 70s F (orange color enhancement)<\/em>, indicating that the damage paths with destroyed vegetation and tornado debris were able to heat up a few degrees more than the adjacent undisturbed vegetation. The urban areas of the cities of Tuscaloosa (KTCL) and Birmingham (KBHM) also exhibited warmer LST values (darker red)<\/em> than the surrounding less urbanized, more densely forested areas.<\/p>\n

\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS Land Surface Temperature product<\/p><\/div>\n

CIMSS participation in GOES-R Proving Ground<\/strong><\/a> activities includes making a variety of MODIS<\/a><\/strong> images and products available for National Weather Service offices to add to their local AWIPS workstations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A comparison of 250-meter resolution Aqua MODIS 0.65 \u00b5m and 0.87 \u00b5m visible channel images centered on Tuscaloosa, Alabama on 28 April 2011 (above) showed signatures of a few of the larger and longer tornado damage paths from the historic tornado outbreak (SPC storm reports) that occurred on 27 April 2011. A collection of GOES, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,11,34,32,12,45,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goes-12","category-goes-13","category-goes-r","category-google-earth","category-modis","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images","category-severe-convection"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7910","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=7910"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36763,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7910\/revisions\/36763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}