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27 October 2017
The Important Weather Satellite You Haven’t Heard Of
The satellite images you see on TV every day are usually from the new GOES-16 which is way up there, at a tenth of the distance to the Moon! But there are other weather satellites you probably don’t know about in polar orbit that are just as important. These satellites have instruments that can measure winds/ temperatures and moisture at many different levels as they fly over the poles, and …
26 September 2017
Satellites Show the Lack of Power In Puerto Rico as a Catastrophe Unfolds.
The images and pleas for help coming from Puerto Rico are heartbreaking and increasingly alarming. Media reports this evening are saying that 80% of the island’s crops have been destroyed. Only those with generators have power and mobile signals are sparse and intermittent. Up to 60% of people have no reliable access to clean water, and frankly, I can see no signs that much is being done about it! I …
12 April 2017
NASA Releases New Black Marble Image
The Suomi Satellite MODIS VIIRS (my mistake- sorry. Terra and Aqua have the MODIS) sensor can see city lights very well when there are no clouds but it’s a polar orbiting satellite so it only passes by one time at night. If you want to grab a shot of the entire planet’s night lights from space, it will take you a while to find a clear night in areas where there are a …
16 March 2017
The Controversial Northeast Snow Cover in Living Color
This is an image with 1 km resolution, and if you click on the image you can get a much larger version. You can see the Susquehanna River clearly and the lack of snow near the coast as the warmer ocean air changed the snow to rain. You can download a 500-meter resolution image here. The snow forecast near the coast was very tricky and there has been some controversy …
3 March 2017
GOES-16 Loop of Fires in SE Texas
More and more GOES-16 data is coming out as it is calibrated and tested. Look at the images below of fires to the southeast of the Dallas area. There is one image every 5 minutes, but GOES-16 (Launched as GOES-R) can return imagery every 30 seconds.
6 May 2016
Smoke from Alberta Wildfire Reaches Florida
The image below is also from the Aqua satellite on Friday and the smoke from the fires is clearly visible. The Suomi Satellite has an imager capable of night time images and the CIMMS Satellite blog at the Uni. of Wisconsin just posted this image from Suomi: Looking at the forecast, it looks like a cool front will bring some rain later Sunday, but amounts will be light, and winds …
25 January 2016
Suomi Sees the Snow
This image form the Suomi Satellite on Sunday afternoon. Snowfall for the storm is below: There is talk today among climate researchers (and synoptic meteorologists like me) about how climate change may be causing these Eastern Seaboard blizzards to be worse, and the very warm waters off the coast with this storm were definitely a factor in this one. See Chris Mooney’s piece in the Washington Post.
24 January 2016
A Storm That Will Be Remembered for Generations
Some are calling it Snowzilla, and having experienced it, the name fits! From DC to Baltimore, and up to New York have over 2 feet. Here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, it varies but a foot is common in Central and Northern Delaware and near Denton in Maryland. On the coast, major coastal flooding has caused significant damage. I shot the image above (from the WBOC Ocean City Maryland …
9 September 2015
Amazing View of North America at Night with the Aurora as Well
The Suomi Satellite continues to give us amazing pictures of our planet. hat tip to CIMMS for the image.
10 June 2015
The U.S. Is About To Almost Catch Up to Japan and Europe With GOES-R Satellite
I spent the day in a short course on weather satellites here in Raleigh,NC today. The course is part of the 43rd AMS Conference on Broadcast Meteorology, and I was invited to present a talk about some experimental products I evaluated at the NOAA Hazardous Weather Test-Bed last June. We spent the day looking at exactly what the GOES-R will be able to see, and what each of the visible …
19 February 2015
NPP Suomi Satellite View of The Ice and Snow
The best views of Earth from space are often from the relatively new NPP/Suomi satellite. The image below is a true-colour view of a snowy and icy Northeast U.S. If you click on the image you will get a MUCH larger version. You should be able to make an 11-14 print from it. Also, check out what Dr. Jennifer Francis has to say about the connection between the loss of …
9 January 2015
City Lights, On A Cold and Snowy Night
The Suomi satellite has the ability to get images of the Earth at night, and this week it grabbed one of the prettiest shots yet, under the light of a full Moon. With clear skies and snow on the ground, you can see the snow and if you look closely you can see some high clouds on top of the lights across portions of Iowa and Minnesota. You can get a much …
16 December 2014
Can You See Holiday Lights From Space? Yes!
NASA’s Suomi Satellite has an amazing sensor that can see the Earth at night very well. The pics below are a comparison of normal city lights from space, and the green shows the added lights from all the holiday decorations! Pretty cool ay! NASA has a video here and the pics of our region are below. Here are further details from NASA: With a new look at daily data from …
9 June 2014
Some Amazing Pics Of Earth
NESDIS is now producing some incredible Earth imagery using different satellites with some of the most sophisticated radiation sensors in orbit. I thought I would share a couple with you. Click for the BIG image. One is a view of the USA taken Saturday afternoon June 7. The other is the sea temperatures around North america and the other shows the temp. anomalies. This allows you to see where …
28 April 2014
Major Severe Weather Outbreak Underway In Plains/Southeast
A strong low pressure system is really winding up in the Plains this Sunday evening, and winds are gusting to 48 mph behind dry line front through Oklahoma and Texas. Ahead of the dry line, a moist and extremely unstable airmass is in place, and storms have already developed. Keep in mind that tornadoes require both unstable air AND strong low-level wind shear, and there is plenty of both in …
18 April 2014
Suomi Satellite Night Vision Sees Great Lakes Ice
The CIMMS Satellite blog has posted a fantastic image of the ice cover on the Great Lakes. See my previous post for more info. This is a visible light (not IR) image made by the VIRRS sensor on Suomi is below: (click for full resolution)
16 March 2014
Severe Travel Restrictions Imposed In Paris as Smog Worsens
Paris just cut the vehicles on Monday’s roads by half in an effort to improve the air quality over the Capital. It also has made all mass transit free, and the BBC has further details here. Motorcycles (most of who have rather dirty engines) are also included. The reason for the bad smog is a temperature inversion, and you have likely heard this before, but I want to explain WHY …
27 October 2013
The Big UK Windstorm You Will Hear About Tomorrow
There are some signs that the low may not reach quite the intensity earlier, but I would not count on that. It may indeed may be one of the strongest storms in quite sometime in Britain. Matt Taylor’s weather broadcast on the BBC is below: Click image to see it. Below is the GFS Model for 3 AM Tuesday morning. The height of the storm will likely be Monday night. …
27 August 2013
Suomi Satellite Nighttime Visible image of Yosemite Fire
An amazing image here from the incredible nighttime visible sensor on the Suomi NPP satellite. You can see the horseshoe-shaped Rim fire now burning in Yosemite Park. Note the city lights of Las Vegas shining through the high cirrus deck over southern Nevada. As the planet warms in coming decades there is ever growing evidence that dry places like the U.S.West will get much drier still…. More from NASA: The …