CIMSS Satellite Blog

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with SPC Storm Reports plotted in red [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed the eastward progression of a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) that produced a long swath of damaging winds (SPC Storm Reports) or derecho from eastern Nebraska to Indiana on 10 August 2020. The highest measured wind gust was 112 mph in eastern Iowa at 1755 UTC.

The corresponding GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images are shown below.

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with SPC Storm Reports plotted in cyan [click to play animation | MP4]

In a comparison of Infrared Window images from Suomi NPP (11.45 µm) and GOES-16 (10.35 µm) at 1931 UTC (below), the higher spatial resolution of the VIIRS instrument detected infrared brightness temperatures as cold as -84ºC, compared to -76ºC with GOES-16 (the same color enhancement is applied to both images). The northwest parallax offset associated with GOES-16 imagery at this location was also evident.

Comparison of Infrared Window images from Suomi NPP (11.45 µm) and GOES-16 (10.35 µm) at 1931 UTC [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 Visible/Infrared Sandwich Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with “probability of intense convection” contours and SPC Storm Reports, is shown below. The probability contours are produced from a deep-learning algorithm used to identify patterns in ABI and GLM imagery that correspond to intense convection. It is trained to highlight strong convection as humans would identify it. Work is ongoing to incorporate this storm-top information into NOAA/CIMSS ProbSevere.

GOES-16 Visible/Infrared Sandwich RGB and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images, with “probability of intense convection” contours and SPC Storm Reports (credit: John Cintineo, CIMSS) [click to play animation | MP4]

A comparison of Terra MODIS True Color RGB images (source) from before (28 July) and after (11 August) the derecho (below) revealed very large swaths of wind-damaged crops (lighter shades of green) across Iowa.

Comparison of before (28 July) / after (11 August) Terra MODIS True Color RGB images centered over Iowa [click to enlarge]

from CIMSS Satellite Blog https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/archives/37938