Representatives from the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), and Madison based local NOAA scientists participated in the 2026 AMS Summit held the week of August 3-7, 2026 in Madison, Wisconsin. There were multiple session chairing/co-chairing duties, oral presentations, and posters by CIMSS/SSEC staff as part of the 17th Annual Conference on Cloud Physics, 17th Conference on Atmospheric Radiation, 22nd Conference on Mountain Meteorology, 30th Conference on Numerical Weather Prediction, and the 32nd Conference on Severe Local Storms. Highlights included overviews of CubeSat science (including NASA PREFIRE mission updates) along with presentations encompassing advancements in the areas of atmospheric radiative transfer, passive/active remote sensing, artificial intelligence/machine learning numerical weather prediction, and earth system dynamics among other topics.

The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) Satellite Blog was updated with the following posts: “One week of Pacific Northwest wildfire activity” (Aug. 6), “Wrights Spring Fire in Oregon exhibits rapid and erratic growth, resulting in 1 firefighter fatality” (Aug. 7), “Northwest Wildfires Impact Air Quality Across North America” (Aug. 10), “Severe weather across northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana” (Aug. 11), “Solar eclipse shadow as viewed by GOES-18 and GOES-19” (Aug. 12), “Day/Night Band Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse” (Aug. 13) and “Tropical Storm Lala develops southeast of Hawai`i” (Aug. 13).

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  Figure: GOES-18 True Color RGB image combined with the Aerosol Optical Depth derived product on August 10, 2026 -- showing the eastward transport of dense wildfire smoke from the Pacific Northwest.
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  Figure: GOES-19 Near-Infrared "Vegetation" image at 1750 UTC on August 12, 2026 -- showing the shadow of a total solar eclipse as it was passing near Iceland.