You are browsing the archive for Suomi Archives - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
5 September 2017
Fire and Rain, and a Whole Lot of Wind
Big Trouble Coming Irma has become a real monster today with sustained winds at 185 mph. Only one hurricane is known that was stronger. This storm reminds me of the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 with 200 mph wind gusts in the Florida Keys. A reminder, when looking at the NHC track forecasts, you should ignore the center line and focus on the cone, which is based on the average forecast …
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 …
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)
8 November 2013
Amazing Image of Haiyan From SUOMI
The resolution is 375 meters on this image. Ctsy. Dan Lindsey at CIRA in Colorado. There was apparently a big jump in lightning around the eye at landfall. More on that here. GOES R will have on-board lightning detection when it launches in a couple of years. This instrument alone is likely to lead to some new discoveries and significant improvements in now-casting and forecasting. A nice loop of the …
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 …
2 November 2012
Suomi Night Visible Imagery Shows Power Loss From Sandy
This image courtesy of the CIMMS Satellite Blog at the Univ. of Wisconsin. If you are interested in satellite meteorology that is the place to go to school!
26 September 2012
Suomi Satellite Sees Storms and Street Lights
The new Suomi satellite, with its night-time visible sensor and 1km resolution IR imagery, continues to send back some amazing views. This mesoscale convective system (MCS) developed late Monday night. Once we get something like this in geostationary orbit it will revolutionize satellite meteorology. Actually it already is. A real problem with night-time IR images is that many times you cannot tell the difference between cold ground and cloud. Fog is especially difficult …
30 August 2012
Hurricane Isaac By Moonlight
Can you spot Richmond, Okla. City, Tulsa, and Springfield, Missouri?? That should be a good start for you. As far as know, this is the first time a hurricane has been imaged by natural light at night. Certainly the first over the U.S. A nice image of the power of Mother Nature against the backdrop of mankind’s domination of the Earth’s surface. More on Suomi and the VIRRS here.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.