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RAMMB: GOES-R Proving Ground Blog

  • Different ways to see snow with GOES-16 imagery & RGBs – by Ed Szoke & Dan Bikos

    This has not been a particularly snowy winter in New England and the Northeast, with a number of rain events during the season.  So naturally, now that “winter” is officially over a snowstorm hit much of the area on Monday 23 March.  Here are the snow totals as of Tuesday morning (24 March): In this blog we will take a look at the different ways to view snow cover using satellite imagery during daytime hours, using a variety of satellite imagery and RGBs that are available for 1400 UTC on Tuesday 24 March. Satellite imagery can be useful to see…

  • Can GLM Total Lightning help with warning for non-supercell (landspout) tornadoes? A case from Iowa on 29 May 2019.

    by Ed Szoke and Dan Bikos Total lightning (in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning) is available to forecasters from the Global Lightning Mapper (GLM) onboard GOES-16 and GOES-17.  Unlike cloud-to-ground lightning, the amount of in-cloud lightning is related to updraft strength, and various studies have seeked to relate in-cloud lightning to the potential for severe storms including tornadoes.  The relationship to supercell tornadoes is not clear, owing to the complexities involved in supercell tornadogenesis.  But non-supercell tornadoes have been shown to be closely related to updraft strength, implying that total lightning as measured by the GLM may have a possibility of helping…

  • Blowing Dust associated with 10-11 April 2019 Central US Strong Cyclone

    By Ed Szoke and Dan Bikos A rapidly intensifying cyclone developed in southeast Colorado late on April 10 as a strong upper-level wave moved out of the Rockies, not quite the “bomb cyclone” of 13 March 2019 but a very intense storm that brought blizzard conditions and widespread snow from the Central Plains to the Upper Midwest. On the southern end of the storm, very strong winds across the Southwest US resulted in a large area of blowing dust from northern Mexico / southern New Mexico into west Texas. We can see the blowing dust quite clearly as shades of…

  • Rapid ice cover development over the eastern Great Lakes in late January 2019

    An Arctic outbreak occurred in late January 2019 over the Great Lakes which caused not only lake-effect snowfall but a rapid increase in ice coverage across the lakes, particularly over shallower lakes. First, we’ll look at GOES-16 imagery prior to the Arctic outbreak. GOES-16 GeoColor imagery on January 25 (click to open a larger window): The clouds associated with lake-effect snowbands show up well, however ice cover on the lake can be difficult to see since the white colored ice may blend in with clouds of the same color. In order to help make the discrimination between ice cover and…

  • Daytime fog over snow in Wyoming on 21 November 2018

    By Ed Szoke and Dan Bikos On 21 November 2018, here is the GOES-16 visible (0.64 micron) imagery: Visible loop: click here or on the image for the animation Do you see any fog in this imagery? How about in this product, do you see any fog? click here or on the image for the animation This is the experimental CIRA Snow/Cloud Layers product. The purpose of the product is to distinguish clouds from snow cover on the ground during the daytime hours. In the product, low/water clouds generally appear as yellow or possibly greenish (as in this case) while…

  • Dry…but not THAT dry!

    The GOES-16 water vapor imagery for all 3 channels showed a narrow band of very warm brightness temperatures (implying sinking air and a dry atmosphere) on Friday morning (1502 UTC) 9 Feb 2018. This narrow zone of sinking air is on the southern (anticyclonic) side of a very strong upper level jet draped across the CONUS, seen in the 1200 UTC 300 mb analysis below.  The dry slot stretches back into the Pacific south of the CONUS jet. Notice how the brightness temperatures within the narrow zone are quite distinct, being at the very warm end of the scale (for…

  • Lots of smoke moving south – a comparison of GeoColor with other bands for smoke visualization on 1 Aug 2017

    The GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational data and are undergoing testing.  Users bear all responsibility for inspecting the data prior to use and for the manner in which the data are utilized. Fires have been burning for some time in Montana as well as western Canada, as seen in the latest large fire incident map for 1 August 2017 below.   A broad upper-level ridge over the southwest to south-central CONUS has generally kept the smoke on an eastward trajectory. 500 mb plot and analysis from 1200 UTC on 26 July 2017. A significant change to…

  • Dust event in the El Paso vicinity on 4 April 2017

    The GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational data and are undergoing testing.  Users bear all responsibility for inspecting the data prior to use and for the manner in which the data are utilized. During the afternoon of 4 April 2017, strong westerly winds and low relative humidity was observed in west Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Mexico as seen in the surface observations at 2100 UTC: The winds were in response to a deepening low near the Texas Panhandle.  Although none of the observations in the plot above show blowing dust, METAR sites such as ELP…

  • 22 March 2017 GOES-16 imagery in the northeast US into southeast Canada

    The GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational data and are undergoing testing.  Users bear all responsibility for inspecting the data prior to use and for the manner in which the data are utilized. By Ed Szoke and Dan Bikos On 22 March 2017 the GOES-16 visible band at 0.64 micron over Maine and southeast Canada shows many different cloud motions across different scales: http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/templates/loop_directory.asp?data_folder=training/visit/loops/22mar17/maine/B02&loop_speed_ms=80 We identify some of these on the following image with 1600 UTC METARs overlaid: The mesolow can be seen in the animation entering the scene and moving northeastward.  This mesolow is likely along…

  • A look at water vapor imagery from GOES-16

    The GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational data and are undergoing testing.  Users bear all responsibility for inspecting the data prior to use and for the manner in which the data are utilized. By Ed Szoke and Dan Bikos Among the 16 channels on GOES-16 are 3 water vapor channels at 2 km resolution (at NADIR), compared to a single water vapor channel on GOES-15 or GOES-13 at 4 km resolution.  Here we take a look at the new water vapor imagery over and near Colorado from Monday 6 March 2017.  We’ll use the 4-panel display from…

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