Satellite Observations of a Severe Supercell Thunderstorm on 24 July 2000 Made during theGOES-11Science Test

Abstract

This paper utilizes a severe thunderstorm case from 24 July 2000 to demonstrate the relevance of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) rapid-scan imagery and sounder data in the short-range forecasting and nowcasting time frames. Results show how these data can be employed quickly and effectively during the warning decision-making process. Various aspects of the severe storm environment are identified that could only be diagnosed in this case using satellite data. The data used in this study are unique in that the imager and sounder input both come from one of the newest of the geostationary satellites, GOES-11. The datasets were collected as a part of the satellite's 6-week science test. During this test period, continuous 1-min imagery and 30-min sounder data were available. The new satellite has now been placed on standby and will be put in service when either GOES-East or GOES-West fails. Two new high-resolution satellite products are presented that are currently in the developmental phase. These will be field tested and implemented within the next couple of years.

Impact of interannual variations in sources of insoluble aerosol species on orographic precipitation over California's central Sierra Nevada

“…In contrast, OC residues from both biomass burn-ing and to some extent pollution were observed during time periods with less precipitation. One possibility is that the local biomass burning and pollution residues served as CCN, which enhanced cloud droplet formation after being incorporated into lower levels of the orographic clouds and led to less precipitation (Weaver et al, 2002;Rosenfeld and Givati, 2006;Rosenfeld et al, 2008;Saleeby et al, 2009). A modeling study of aircraft measurements from 2011 presented by Martin et al (2015) shows the presence of organic carbon residues at lower cloud levels during prefrontal storm conditions in the Sierra Nevada, demonstrating the significance of our observations and how they validate model results.…”

A Cluster Approach to Cloud Cover Classification over South America and Adjacent Oceans Using a k-means/k-means++ Unsupervised Algorithm on GOES IR Imagery

“…[11][12]. Considering specific CC studies, GOES-2 IR data was used to study its distribution across the Americas ( [33] and references therein), GOES-8 and -9 IR data was processed in order to track the motion and evolution of stratiform clouds [34], and GOES-11 imager and sounder information was taken to describe the outbreak of a severe thunderstorm over the United States Great Plains [35]. CC was also analyzed for masking cloud imagery so as to detect fires [36].…”