CTC in RSO North of St. Louis, MO

When the GOES-R satellite is placed into operations, it will have the advantage of a normal scan mode with 5-minute temporal resolution.  This allows cloud structure and, more importantly, convective growth easier to analyze.  Today GOES-13 was placed into Rapid Scan Operations (normal scanning operations for GOES-R) to monitor thunderstorms across the southeastern US...which gave the UW-CIMSS Cloud-Top Cooling demonstration product an opportunity to perform within this scanning mode.  The animated image in Fig. 1 (click to enlarge) shows how the CTC algorithm detected strong cloud cooling/growth (~-30C/15min) within a cumulus field north of St. Louis, MO.  The LSX Composite Reflectivity was approximately 35-40 dBZ at the time of the first detection, grew quickly into a 50-55 dBZ after 30 minutes, and a severe thunderstorm warning was issued by LSX at 1957 UTC.  The forecaster at the GOES-R desk quickly noted that new cells were growing on composite reflectivity behind the parent cell, however no detections were made by the CTC algorithm with that portion of the cumulus field (nonetheless storms never developed in that area).  The UW-CIMSS CTC product and composite reflectivity both showed rapid growth of the parent cell, however the forecaster remarked that the composite reflectivity cannot quantitatively show how fast the cell is cooling.  Although this storm passed just west of Lambert Field and did not impact upper-level jet routes, it was a good opportunity to show the forecaster (in real time) the advantage of the higher temporal resolution that will be "the norm" on the GOES-R satellites.

Fig. 1 Visible imagery, UW-CIMSS Cloud-Top Cooling Product, and 15-min flight path information between 1855-1925 UTC.

Fig. 2 LSX Composite Reflectivity between 1852-1927 UTC.