 DISCUSSION: On Tuesday, February 12, 2019, the GOES-17 (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) has been declared functional as GOES-West. GOES-17 has taken over the position of GOES-West at 137.2° W for GOES-15 which has shifted to 128° W. GOES-West handles the duties of taking visible and infrared imagery for the Western Hemisphere and the Continental United States. The first system captured by the GOES-17 as the new GOES-West was the atmospheric river event that was forecasted to hit the San Francisco Bay Area on the night of February 12.
GOES-17, however, had some problems after being launched from Cape Canaveral on March 1, 2018. The main source of the issues that arose deal with the cooling and heating systems of the satellite. The cooling and heating of the satellite is vital as the infrared sensors detect radiation mostly in the form of heat from the Earth. The problem with a very warm satellite would make it harder for the infrared sensors to make significant distinctions between temperatures such as between a very cold ground with clear skies and a cloud top. The next satellite in the GOES series to be launched will be GOES-T. GOES-T is scheduled to be launched sometime in June 2020. The GOES-T is scheduled to be used as a storage in orbit just in case one of the other GOES satellites have to go offline or if there is a major malfunction. The GOES-R series, which includes the GOES-17 and GOES-T, is different than the previous GOES satellites as they have more advanced technology including for solar imaging than the GOES-13 series which is the GOES-13, GOES-14, and GOES-15. To learn more about other weather observation topics from around the world, be sure to click here! ©2019 Meteorologist JP Kalb
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A Neat Cloud Phase Analysis Perspective of the Recent Polar Vortex-Induced Lake Effect Snow!2/3/2019 
DISCUSSION: As of the past week, millions of people spread across North America either watched in amazement or experienced first-hand what it truly means to encounter the full-force of the mid/upper-atmospheric Polar Vortex circulation. The Polar Vortex circulation is a periodically oscillation Arctic-based circulation which compromises a good portion of the coldest air which exists on planet Earth. Moreover, the Polar Vortex can sometimes split into separate components which are often referred to as “lobes” which can occasionally descend into the mid-latitudes (e.g., parts of North America and/or Europe) and consequently usher in severely cold air which can create dangerous or even life-threatening cold conditions for several days at a time when such an event occurs.
As a result of this cold air moving through portions of the north-central and northeastern United States, this severe cold air intrusion ultimately triggered a major lake effect snow event downwind of both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Along with the fact that the respective lake effect snow events were very impressive, they were even more interesting to observe via GOES-16 satellite imagery. Attached above is a neat satellite imagery loop which was recently captured by the GOES-16 satellite imagery shows a neat perspective regarding how various types of clouds can be differentiated based on their respective phase. As you can see in the satellite imagery attached above, the white-colored regions indicated regions of snow cover on the ground, the yellow-colored regions indicate the presence of liquid water clouds, pink-colored regions indicate the presence of ice-based clouds, and green-colored regions indicate the presence of snow-free ground (i.e., just the typical clear surface of the Earth with a great view of the natural regional topography). This recent GOES-16 satellite imagery just goes to show that this state-of-the-art perspective of winter weather events can show how the cloud types moving across Lake Erie and Lake Ontario shifted from water-based clouds to ice-based clouds in accordance with the development of the corresponding lake effect snow bands. Thus, this goes to show how and why these lake effect snow bands impacted areas in and around Buffalo, New York as well as the Tug Hill Plateau region just to the east of Lake Ontario. To learn more about other weather observation topics from around the world, be sure to click here! © 2019 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz |
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