Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch

00:00:00:18 – 00:00:22:07
Speaker 1
Welcome to today’s visit Satellite Chat. For today, we’re going to be looking at some, recent one minute imagery applications. Goes. 14 has been in this super, rapid scan for goes on operations, since early in the month. And we’ve had a lot of interesting cases to look at, including some, fire weather applications.

00:00:22:07 – 00:00:30:07
Speaker 1
So, with that, we’re going to lead off with, Scott Lindstrom at Symmes in Wisconsin to discuss that.

00:00:30:09 – 00:00:54:02
Speaker 2
Thanks, Dan. So this is looking at data from last Thursday when we very well forecast, fire events happened mostly in Oklahoma. So we’re going to be focusing on things that were in Oklahoma, although the extreme fire danger was in the centered in extreme parts of Oklahoma, we’ll be looking at stuff in eastern Oklahoma and also along the Kansas border.

00:00:54:29 – 00:01:20:06
Speaker 2
This was when as Goes 14 was in one minute scanning mode. So this is an animation that Scott Brockmire put together and it’s showing, this is a region. This is the Kansas border kind of in the center here. And I like this animation because it shows what one minute imagery will get you. And you can see the motion of this hot spot, moving right over.

00:01:20:08 – 00:01:42:13
Speaker 2
I think that was maybe highway 189. Scott, you can correct me if that’s wrong, but it shows how easily it is to see at very high temporal resolution, exactly where the hazards are right now. With 15 minute imagery, you’re kind of seeing where was the hazard, you know, 5 to 10 minutes ago. But with the one minute imagery, it’s much more rapid.

00:01:42:14 – 00:02:07:05
Speaker 2
Another nice thing about this animation, and it’s a great example of, how difficult it is to see smoke the beginning of this. There’s smoke in the imagery, but it is with such a fun angle that it’s hard to see it. There’s not a lot of backscatter to smoke, there’s a lot of forward scatter. So when the when the sun gets a little bit lower in the sky at the end of the animation, you start to see the smoke plume a lot more easily.

00:02:07:14 – 00:02:34:10
Speaker 2
So I guess that’s the the two takeaways from this particular slide is one that the one minute imagery, you know, no surprise. It’s something that you can use to monitor fires as they’re moving around. Now when the goes our era fire products will be available or it fire automatic fire detection will be available in eight weeks every five minutes.

00:02:34:23 – 00:02:54:02
Speaker 2
So it might be prudent if you’re in a region like this part of the country was last Thursday, to request a method. So you get the one minute imagery so you can do a little bit. You can be, more you can be monitoring the evolution of fire a little bit more closely. So in the future.

00:02:54:02 – 00:03:16:29
Speaker 2
So here we have a larger scale view. Again, difficult to see smoke in the visible imagery at the very beginning because of the sun problems. But you do see a lot of dark regions or, very warm regions. And the 3.7 which is on the bottom, signifying the fire and the one I just showed you is this one up in northwest Oklahoma.

00:03:17:02 – 00:03:40:14
Speaker 2
It’s crossing the Kansas border. So very energetic fire, very hot and fairly rapidly moving so very well tailored to, very well tailored to demonstrate why one minute imagery is so important. And I guess I should just jump back about this is mostly this is on the send satellite blog under this why one minute satellite data matters monitoring fire.

00:03:40:14 – 00:04:12:17
Speaker 2
So some of the imagery that I’m showing you I took from there. So here we have just a really zoomed in region around Tulsa. This is 75 minutes worth of data. And you’ll see that the pixels are flickering on and off. So there’s very high temporal variability to this, to the warmth of the pixels, something that you really miss with five minute data, especially with 15 minute data which is current, goes so again, a reason why you might want to call a method, when you’re in that goes out there.

00:04:12:17 – 00:04:40:12
Speaker 2
So this is a, this is just looking at one particular pixel, the brightness temperature, for the last, what, 2138 to 2201. So this is every minute, at that particular showing the brightness temperature at that particular pixel. And the blue line is the one minute data, normally one minute data, of course, there’s some gaps. There are only 50, but it’s at 52 images per hour.

00:04:40:15 – 00:05:02:10
Speaker 2
And then the red dots that come on every now and then are showing what you would get if you had five minutes sampling. And, it’s pretty easy to see that the five minute sampling. I should have put 15 minutes sampling in here too, but the five minute sampling really well could easily underestimate, the the swings in the pixel temperature.

00:05:02:10 – 00:05:30:06
Speaker 2
So you’ll miss you can miss the quick ramping up of the fires, and you can miss the cooling off of the fires. Typically probably associated with some mesoscale variability in the winds or in what’s available to burn. So that’s just one, one particular pixel. And here’s another one where we have big changes, over maybe 3 minutes or 5 minutes.

00:05:31:03 – 00:05:59:26
Speaker 2
Again, something that’s very difficult to capture with 15 minute data especially. But also even with five minutes, you can do something similar in a website. This is a figure from Jim Ledoux. This is showing a tracking, tracking medium. I want to call it a meteoric Graham tracking medio Graham. So this is at a particular point in Oklahoma, and I believe this is the brightness value of that particular pixel.

00:05:59:26 – 00:06:27:10
Speaker 2
So this zero here is one. It’s saturated. So it’s as hot as it can get. And again, if you look at the this is one minute data. And if you look at the values every minute versus every five minutes versus every 15 minutes, it becomes pretty clear that the one minute data is the only thing that you can really use to get a really accurate, view of how quickly the fire intensity is changing.

00:06:27:12 – 00:06:52:08
Speaker 2
And the other and again, just to remind you, that other example that I showed you earlier shows you was a great example of how the one minute imagery from above, shows you how important that is to see where the fire is at this particular point in time. What did this data look like in modus? Okay.

00:06:52:08 – 00:07:18:24
Speaker 2
This is where I wonder if it’s going to show my screen. This is a true color image from modus. It’s still showing black on my screen. So let me try something here. Okay. Come back to me. Okay. Maybe that works. So in a true color image, the smoke plumes are a lot easier to see than in just the monochromatic 0.64 microns that you get from ghosts.

00:07:19:03 – 00:07:40:29
Speaker 2
I like this one because you can actually see the black part of the plume. And then it turns into, white smoke. So I’m not I’m not exactly sure what’s burning at this particular point here, but it’s producing a lot of soot. But again, this is from, Motus, which has three, channels in the, in the visible.

00:07:40:29 – 00:08:15:21
Speaker 2
I’m going to close this out because, if you look at what’s coming with Goes-r, here we have this spectral response function for Goes-r, and there is a blue channel and there is a let’s, let’s zoom that and there’s a blue channel and there’s a red channel. But you’ll notice there’s really no green. So for Abby, it’s going to be difficult to make a, true color image like you can get with, with mode or with viewers, with a h I of course you do have the green band.

00:08:16:14 – 00:08:40:19
Speaker 2
A sort of a green band. So you can make a true color image with a with a h I that’s out over the the Japanese satellite that’s out over the Pacific. But again, with Abby, there is no green band. So, it would be difficult to make a nice true color like a can with Motus. So that true color is, as I, as I showed you, is a good way to to find smoke.

00:08:41:15 – 00:09:08:24
Speaker 2
But it’s going to be a challenge to create it in the goes-r era from the API data. Now, there are products out there now that you can use to, find hot spots. This is a, this is an animation just showing you all the detected hot spots from the, harbor, which is very similar to the goes-r algorithm that will be used and will be available on a website.

00:09:09:07 – 00:09:31:17
Speaker 2
Once goes, our data are flowing and you can see the clustering of detected fires over, eastern, eastern Oklahoma on day, on the 18th of February, which is day 49. So this is all done in Julian day. There are places online you can also go, so this can do a search on WFAA. But you can come to this page.

00:09:31:19 – 00:10:01:10
Speaker 2
Asco also has a nice page. So if you do a search on Oxbow Atmospheric Products that will take you to a lot of, different links that will. Allow you to look at automatic detections of fire and smoke or clouds. So that’ll be useful in the coming fire season. If you want to mean, if you want to monitor, for example, smoke plumes and how they might be affecting your high temperature or something like that.

00:10:02:22 – 00:10:06:27
Speaker 2
I think that’s.

00:10:06:29 – 00:10:30:18
Speaker 2
I believe that’s all I have. I just want to give a shout out to the show. You another loop from goes 14. This is from yesterday. Goes today is today. Yesterday and today are the last two days of the present. Goes 14. So, one minute imagery. So if you don’t have it in a website, there are methods of getting into a works.

00:10:30:18 – 00:10:52:09
Speaker 2
It’s late. It’s too late for this one. But this is also being repeated in April. So the person to contact for this, you could either contact Dan Lindsey, Sarah or Tim Schmidt here at Sams and they can Tim Smith just going to point you to Dan Lindsey. So maybe should just go straight to Dan Lindsey. But Dan Lindsey at Sarah can give you information on how to get this one minute imagery into your system.

00:10:52:18 – 00:11:15:26
Speaker 2
So you can look at it in real time. And again, it’s great for monitoring. Here’s an example with convection or fires or lots of different, different things. So that’s this is a quick satellite chat today. So if you have any questions or comments I’ll be happy to take them.

00:11:15:28 – 00:11:40:09
Speaker 2
Yeah. Hi. This is Chad from Medford, Oregon. And we have a few incident meteorologists here in the last summer. Rapid scat didn’t seem to be available on the web. And I’m wondering if this rapid imagery, if goes 14, are going to be a veil or goes are going to be available, on the web? Well, the Goes 14 data are only available during certain times of the year.

00:11:40:09 – 00:12:03:04
Speaker 2
So they’re saying, I should I should go to the website. Go. I mean, I mean, in the future, once it’s operational, will be will this imagery be available on the web as it is available on a web? Typically, yes. So you can get this data on the web right now if, I mean, if there are many different locations for it.

00:12:04:13 – 00:12:32:21
Speaker 2
I just know I’ll, I’ll type in the one that I know of off the top of my head. So this is just showing the goes 14 one minute imagery. For today. So it’s the latest 16 images, I think, there’s one at Sierra as well. So when this, when these one minute data are flowing from Goes-r, I’m sure there’ll be websites like this, that are available for the public to look at.

00:12:33:18 – 00:12:54:05
Speaker 2
I mean, we, we provide data here. Sarah provides data, so I guess the answer to your question is yes, it will be available on the net. Okay. Internet.

00:12:54:08 – 00:12:57:01
Speaker 3
Hey, Dan, this is Mike in Medford.

00:12:57:03 – 00:12:59:05
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.

00:12:59:08 – 00:13:07:26
Speaker 3
Hey, so we were having some discussion when we’re looking at the, the hotspot imagery earlier in the presentation, and,

00:13:07:28 – 00:13:08:16
Speaker 2
Just tossing.

00:13:08:16 – 00:13:52:28
Speaker 3
Around ideas and wanted to get your, yours or anybody else’s perspective on, you know, the we were we were brainstorming how are things going to change here in operations if, during the course of a half an hour, as we see these changes in, in hotspot intensity and location, with the enhanced imagery that we’re not seeing now, and, you know, we’re just kind of wondering, what are we going to do differently based on that increase resolution over the course of, you know, 15 minutes and, it it seems like there’s more kind of operational, decisions that could be made in the field in fire circles versus, in, in weather service operations.

00:13:53:01 – 00:13:58:18
Speaker 3
But, you know, I understand there’s some of that we’re not really going to discover until we get there, but.

00:13:58:20 – 00:14:00:12
Speaker 2
What what kind of things do you.

00:14:00:12 – 00:14:15:05
Speaker 3
Guys see us using this as? And I’m talking specifically as the 3.9, as the hotspot imagery. How does that increase resolution in time over the course of, say, 15 minutes or a half an hour? How might that help us in operation?

00:14:15:08 – 00:14:38:18
Speaker 2
Well, it’s it’s not just the increased temporal resolution that you’ll be getting. There will be increased spatial resolution as well. And, the 3.9 on Goes-r is more sensitive to fire. So it’s you’ll be able to see the development of a fire earlier. Just from a detection standpoint, because of the higher resolution and the better sensitivity of the instrument.

00:14:38:21 – 00:15:05:05
Speaker 2
So that’s that’s one thing. So just, better awareness of the development of a fire at a particular location or so earlier awareness, I guess. And then once you have it, a better capability to monitor. Now, I agree that a lot of that might be more suited to someone who’s out in the field, you know, fighting the fire, for example, versus what you’re using it for in the, in the, in the weather service office.

00:15:05:22 – 00:15:26:28
Speaker 2
When you’re talking. Well, I guess if you’re going to do decision support to that, to emergency managers and there’s a fire, you know, better abilities to monitor it are going to make you allow a better informed decision on your part when you’re talking to the people. But I think one of the big things will be the better spatial resolution, too.

00:15:27:00 – 00:15:53:01
Speaker 2
I mean, we’re looking this is a four kilometer pixel nominally at the subset by. So here in Oklahoma, it might be, I know, five and a half or six kilometers. So it’ll be, the pixels will be twice as small. So it’ll probably be about a 2 or 3 kilometer pixel, in the goes-r era, even if this is goes west, it’s still going to be better than at this longitude.

00:15:53:01 – 00:16:10:19
Speaker 2
It’s still going to be better than even if Goes-r is goes west. The pixel resolution in Oklahoma from Goes-r is still going to be better than the pixel resolution from Goes 13. So I guess I’ll just put a plug in for the better spatial resolution.

00:16:10:19 – 00:16:33:09
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, no. And that’s a concern. Those are some of the things we talked about here too. And when we understand that, I just think that some of that is going to be yet to be discovered. I think sort of our services will evolve as we, as we as we gain, you know, these increases in resolution, we sort of will we’ll see services unfold, new ways of dealing with the data unfold as we get it.

00:16:33:14 – 00:16:35:10
Speaker 2
To be determined. As they say.

00:16:35:12 – 00:16:43:04
Speaker 3
They’ll be determined in many ways with with a lot of the upcoming, yeah, changes. But so that’s that’s all I had to say about that. Thanks for that discussion. Yeah.

00:16:43:11 – 00:17:12:11
Speaker 2
And for if, if goes becomes goes east. That longitude of where goes our resolution matches goes 15 resolution is about 120 west, which I think cuts your, cuts here WAFL right in half since that the. Isn’t that the, or. It’s close. It’s close to here. So, you should be hoping that goes or it becomes goes west, I guess.

00:17:12:11 – 00:17:15:02
Speaker 2
So you’ll get the better resolution.

00:17:15:11 – 00:17:21:25
Speaker 3
We’re definitely hoping.

00:17:21:27 – 00:17:29:19
Speaker 1
Okay. Any more questions for Scott?

00:17:29:21 – 00:18:00:17
Speaker 1
Okay, if not, let me show my screen here just for a second. Since, somebody was asking about, where to view the imagery. And as Scott said, it is available from Sierra here as well. Here’s our page. And we have, various sectors, set up along with, different channels. So, if you click on this, one of the sectors down here, you’ll see something like, this image that I’ll go ahead and, play here.

00:18:00:19 – 00:18:20:09
Speaker 1
And this is the just the most recent, one minute imagery. And it shows some interesting, features here over the southeast. So, with that, I guess I’ll conclude. But before we, sign off here, remember, if you ever if you ever have a satellite related question, don’t hesitate to ask us, where to find that as.

00:18:20:09 – 00:18:44:06
Speaker 1
Go to the visit page and go to visit Satellite Helpdesk. And from there you’ll see the directions on where to find that. On the V lab, we have the set up on the V lab as a forum. So, again, any satellite related questions? Don’t hesitate to ask. With that, I’ll ask if there’s any more questions before we sign off.

00:18:44:08 – 00:18:46:24
Speaker 1
Okay. Well, thanks, everybody, and have a great day. Thanks.