STAR JPSS Website
Typhoon Meranti
Don Hillger; Dan Lindsey
13 September 2016 - VIIRS Visible to IR "fade" of Super Typhoon Meranti.
Hurricane Lester
Don Hillger; Dan Lindsey
29 August 2016 - Hurricane Lester, spinning in the east Pacific, reached its peak intensity of 120 kts on the afternoon of 29 Aug. 2016. VIIRS passed over near that time and collected these full resolution 375 m images. The large image is from infrared I-band 5, and the inset is the corresponding I-band 1 visible.
VIIRS I-band-4 Imagery
Don Hillger; Dan Lindsey
11 July 2016 - A VIIRS I-band-4 image from 11 July 2016 at 3:05 am shows the location of the hotspots from fires in Colorado. The smoke that residents could smell in Ft. Collins (not visible in this image) came from the northwest originating from the Beaver Creek fire.
Fires and Smoke in VIIRS Imagery
Don Hillger
16 June 2016 - False three-color image of fires and smoke from 16 June 2016 at 1954 UTC. The two main fires in Arizona and New Mexico, as well as a smaller fine in southeastern Colorado, caused a smoke layer over eastern Colorado. This product is a result of Principal Component Analysis of the VIIRS M-band imagery, with the main signal coming from the visible/reflective bands M1-M5.
Tropical Cyclone Fantala
Don Hillger; Dan Lindsey
17 April 2016 - Tropical Cyclone Fantala achieved a category 5 intensity of 150 knots (172 mph) on 17 April as it passed north of the island of Madagascar in the southwestern Indian Ocean. These daytime Infrared and Visible images from the VIIRS 375-m I-bands show a very well-organized storm with a warm eye, symmetric cold central dense overcast, and evidence for mesovortices in the low-level clouds inside the eye.
Pavlof Volcano
Don Hillger; Steve Miller
27 March 2016 - An example of a multi-spectral RGB image that includes DNB and ash detection.
Suomi NPP VIIRS image from about 1:30 AM local time (~9 hours after the initial eruption of Pavlof on March 27, 2016). Information from the Suomi NPP DNB sensor has been blended with other measurements that are sensitive to the temperature and composition of water/ice clouds and volcanic ash. Low water clouds and snow cover are shown in yellow, higher/thicker ice clouds inshades of blue, and the heart of Pavlof's ash plume streaming to the northeast depicted in red/orange.
VIIRS NCC as viewed in AWIPS-2
Don Hillger; Dan Lindsey; Jorel Torres
24 February 2016 - A screen capture from the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS)-2 of the VIIRS Near Constant Contrast (NCC) product from February 24, 2016 - 2:06 am EST. This occurred near full moon, so many cloud-top details can be seen in the line of thunderstorms approaching Florida. A number of lightning flashes are also evident in the line of storms.
Image of the Month - Saharan Dust
Don Hillger
21 February 2016 - VIIRS True Color RGB composite image of Saharan dust covering Spain and Portugal (12:40 UTC 21 February 2016).
The VIIRS Imagery and Visualization Team Blog has been updated with a new blog post titled, 'The Sirocco and the Giant Bowl of Dust'. This post compares VIIRS imagery of recent dust events over Europe and the Takla Makan desert of western China. Various methods for detecting dust are shown and discussed.
Click here to view more images and animations.
View of Cool Airmass
Don Hillger
14 February 2016 - A bitterly cold airmass dropped over the northeast U.S. on Valentine's Day resulting in many daily record cold temperatures including in Albany, Watertown and Syracuse, New York. It was also the coldest temperatures observed in several decades in a number of locations. NPP's nighttime pass at 2 am EST allowed for an impressive VIIRS I-band 5 image over a region that was largely cloud-free. Its high resolution (375 m) captured sharp horizontal gradients in brightness temperature.
VIIRS Image of the Month
Don Hillger
5 February 2016 - This image demonstrates the Cloudsnow Day 2 VIIRS Product. The image was taken @ 1925Z on 5 February 2016 a few days after a snowstorm that came through the state of Colorado 1-2 February 2016. The image shows the state of Colorado and its neighboring states where it discriminates and highlights the differences between snow on the ground (white) from the low-to-high level clouds (yellow). On there were not many clouds hovering over the state. Additionally one can see that almost the entire state of Colorado from the Rocky Mountains to the eastern High Plains are covered in snow. The snowstorm brought 12-18 inches (30-50 cm) of snowfall (i.e., snow depth) and appoximately 1-2 inches (25-50 mm) of snow-water equivalent (a.k.a. SWE the amount of liquid water contained within the snowpack) to the front range and Denver Metropolitan areas. The product can be seen on-line via the RAMSDIS Online Archive.
Blizzard 2016
22-24 January 2016 - A record-breaking winter storm system tracked across the eastern United States. The storm dumped 18+ inches of snow over an area stretching from Kentucky to New York City. Areas in West Virginia and western Maryland received as much as 40 inches of snow while most major northeastern cities approached or broke their previous snowfall records.
STAR JPSS scientists have provided high resolution images and product maps covering the impacts of this blizzard for the Northeastern US. Click here to view the images.
VIIRS DNB Imagery on Postage Stamps
January 2016 - With the popularity of VIIRS Imagery on social media it's not surprising that VIIRS images also appear on postage stamps. The first use was found from Gambia. Now The Netherlands has issued this sheet of 10 stamps showing the lights of cities composited in part from Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB) imagery.
Hurricane Alex
Marco Vargas
14 January 2016 - Hurricane Alex heading towards the Azores Islands.
These images were created from six VIIRS granules captured on January 14 2016 (14:33 - 14:41 UTC):
a) and b) VIIRS false color images using Imagery EDR bands I3, I2, and I1.
c) close-up image of the storm from the VIIRS Band I1.
d) close-up image of the storm from the VIIRS Band I5.
Cyclone Ula
Marco Vargas
10 January 2016 - Cyclone Ula heading towards the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.
These images were created from seven VIIRS granules captured on January 10 2016 (All images generated with the VIIRS Data Display Tool [VDDT]):
a) and b) VIIRS false color images using Imagery EDR bands I3, I2 and I1.
c) close-up image of the storm from the VIIRS Band I1.
d) close-up image of the storm from the VIIRS Band I5.
Latest JSTAR Updates
VIIRS Global Surface Type (GST) annual update The GST-2015 products can be downloaded from following FTP link:
S-NPP_VIIRS_GST_IGBP_2015For more information please contact Rui Zhang or Xiwu Zhan.
STAR JPSS 2016 Annual Science Team Meeting. From August 8-12, 2016, STAR JPSS successfully held its third Annual Science Team Meeting at NCWCP. Over 350 scientists from NOAA, NASA, Universities, and industries attended the meeting. Presentations are available online. The summary of the 2016 STAR JPSS Annual Meeting can be found here.
JPSS Life-Cycle Data Reprocessing Workshop The Workshop was held on May 17-18, 2016. Nearly 70 technical staff and associates participated in the workshop directly or remotely via Webex. The theme of the workshop was to "Maximize JPSS data applications through SDR and EDR reprocessing".
JPSS Enterprise Algorithms Workshop From March 30-31, 2016, STAR JPSS Management hosted the JPSS Enterprise Algorithms Workshop. Science teams and corresponding stakeholders met to discuss the current status of Level 2 JPSS products and their progress/plans toward Enterprise Algorithm development. Presentations are available here.
Validated Maturity Review for Green Vegetation Fraction, Vegetation Health, VIIRS Polar Winds, MIRS (Moisture Profile, Temperature Profile, Rainfall Rate, Total Precipitable Water), NUCAPS (IR Ozone Profile & CrIS Outgoing Longwave Radiation), and GCOM AMSR2 Day-1 Products (Sea Surface Temperature, Imagery, Cloud Liquid Water, Precipitation Type/Rate, Total Precipitable Water, Sea Surface Wind Speed) on October 18-19, 2016
Critical Design Review for updates to NDE and Okeanos algorithms for JPSS-1 on October 27, 2016
JSTAR Newsletter
Message from the Program Manager: Welcome to the new STAR JPSS Monthly Newsletter. September was a busy month for the STAR JPSS Program. STAR OMPS NP V8Pro DAP was delivered to NDE on Sept 30th 2016. STAR ASSIST and land teams completed critical design reviews for surface reflectance, LST & Albedo, Vegetation Indexes algorithms. The surface albedo team supported a LUT update in operation. The aerosol team organized a two-day workshop on September 13-14, 2016 and conducted briefings and interactive hands-on tutorials for science and operational users. STAR SDR/EDR teams also provided extensive independent assessments of the JPSS Block 2.0 testing and the results were reported back to the JPSS program as part of the JPSS-1 Cal Val Readiness.
Upcoming Events
- American Meteorological Society's (AMS) 97th Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, January 22-26, 2017
- 2017 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), Fort Worth, TX, July 23-28, 2017
- International TOVS Study Conferences, ITSC-XXI, Darmstadt, Germany, 29 November - 5 December 2017
