VISIT: Meteorological Interpretation Blog

During March 2024, NOAA-21 was declared the primary satellite of the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). In early April 2024, NOAA-20 (newly designated as the secondary satellite) completed its orbital shift placing NOAA-20 a half-orbit (~50 minutes) a part from NOAA-21. The tertiary satellite, SNPP, is now positioned a quarter-orbit between NOAA-21 and NOAA-20. A Continue Reading

During mid-April 2024, unprecedented flooding occurred in the Middle East, specifically in the countries of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. Over the course of a few days, a series of storms produced significant precipitation totals that pummeled the region, which led to extensive flooding that shut down schools, grounded or diverted flights, and Continue Reading

By Sheldon Kusselson Animations: ALPW Layer Vapor Transport Percentile Ranking

In complement to the NOAA-20 NUCAPS soundings, National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters now have access to another set of satellite-derived soundings from the European Metop-C satellite in AWIPS-II. As of 11 March 2024, the Metop-C NUCAPS soundings are accessible via Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN) across the CONUS (and globally). The Metop-C soundings provide mid-morning overpasses Continue Reading

Fires erupted over the Texas Panhandle during the last week of February 2024. The fires burned over 1+ million acres, where the Smokehouse Creek Fire became the largest fire in Texas state history. Videos of the fires and drone footage of the destruction were vast. Geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites captured the event over the course Continue Reading

Another atmospheric river event impacted the Pacific Northwest (PNW), earlier this week. Plumes of moisture moved into the region that led to heavy precipitation and flooding for the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. 24-hour precipitation totals from Monday, 4 December through Tuesday, 5 December 2023 were quite impressive over western Washington. Additionally, the Seattle-Tacoma Continue Reading

As of early November 2023, the TOWR-S RPM v24 has been released for National Weather Service (NWS) users to update their local AWIPS terminals with the latest satellite data capabilities. Within the RPM v24 release, more NWS CONUS users will be able to access the Snowfall Rate (SFR) and the merged SFR (satellite plus radar) Continue Reading

Per NOAA Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO), the last requirement was fulfilled to declare NOAA-21 operational and as the secondary satellite of the JPSS constellation. As of 3 November 2023, the three existing JPSS satellites are now designated in the following order: Primary – NOAA-20, Secondary – NOAA-21, and Tertiary – SNPP. This Continue Reading

Over the past week, fires were raging in the country of Bolivia. Numerous fires were observed by the GOES-16 geostationary satellite, and were spotted across the country. The largest fires were seen in central Bolivia, specifically located northwest of the city of Santa Cruz. On 22 October 2023, the GOES-16 ABI Day Fire RGB, which Continue Reading

This summer 2023, NOAA-21 VIIRS Near-Constant Contrast (NCC) imagery has become available for National Weather Service (NWS) users to access in the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System – II (AWIPS-II) via the Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN). With the addition of NOAA-21 VIIRS NCC, users can now access the nighttime visible imagery from three JPSS polar-orbiting Continue Reading