VISIT: Meteorological Interpretation Blog

Drenching Rains 16-17 May 2024 From Most Impactful Kona Low in 20 Years Resulted in Flooding Across Western Hawaii

Posted in: Heavy Rain and Flooding Issues, POES, | Leave a Comment

The Texas / Southern Oklahoma Heavy Rain and Flooding of Spring 2024

By Sheldon Kusselson

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The Northern Lights Observed in the Lower-48

A powerful geomagnetic storm transpired over the Lower-48 during the weekend of 11-13 May 2024. The sun produced coronal mass injections that impacted the Earth, creating auroras (a.k.a., northern lights) that were seen across the globe. Within CONUS, the auroras were visible as far south as Florida, Texas, and Alabama: locations where the northern lights are typically not observed. Spectacular photos of the event can be seen here.

Accessing the CIRA SLIDER – JPSS Northern Hemisphere Sector, one can observe the northern lights that dominated the northern tier of the U.S. from 6-12Z, 11 May 2024. The VIIRS Near-Constant Contrast (NCC), a derived product of the Day/Night Band (DNB) captures the extensive, emitted white streaks that are produced from the auroras. Clusters of emitted city lights can also be seen across CONUS.

National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) employed social media to highlight the nighttime visible imagery as a way to observe the northern lights. Click on the images below to view the social media posts and animations.

Posted in: POES, Satellites, Space Weather, VIIRS, | Leave a Comment

CIRA’s Satellite Moisture Products for the 4 May 2024 Rainfall Event in San Francisco

ALPW Animation

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NOAA-21 Designated as the Primary Satellite of the JPSS Constellation

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 schematic below displays and compares the old JPSS orbital configuration (pre – 20 March 2024) to the finalized orbital configuration (4 April 2024).

For users, how does the new orbital configuration appear in the imagery? A CONUS perspective of VIIRS 11.45 µm swaths from NOAA-21, SNPP and NOAA-20 are seen on 10 April 2024. Notice the JPSS orbital sequence (observed from east coast to west coast) starts with NOAA-21, then ~25 minutes later SNPP, then NOAA-20 ~25 minutes after that. Afterwards, a 50 minute data gap occurs, then the sequence repeats.

The same orbital sequence can also be seen over Alaska. Refer to the 2 May 2024 VIIRS Snow/Cloud Layers animation that shows the sea ice coverage over the Bering and Chukchi Seas and low/high clouds and snow over the Last Frontier State.

Posted in: Miscellaneous, POES, Satellites, VIIRS, | Leave a Comment