CIMSS-NOAA Weekly Report [ Archive ]

CIMSS-NOAA WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 15, 2026

DATA, INFORMATION, AND USE-INSPIRED SCIENCE:

PEOPLE, AWARDS AND RECOGNITION:

TRAVEL AND MEETINGS:

TRAINING AND EDUCATION:

MEDIA INTERACTIONS AND REQUESTS:

SOCIAL MEDIA AND BLOG Posts:

CIMSS Satellite Blog Updates: The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) Satellite Blog (https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/) was updated with the following posts: "The Impacts of Parallax, or Looking at the Same Scene from a Different Perspective" (Feb. 6), "Norlun Trough brings localized areas of heavy snow to parts of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island" (Feb. 7), "A Winter Storm Warning for Hawaii" (Feb. 9), "Cyclone Gezani makes landfall on Madagascar as a Category 3 storm" (Feb. 10) and "Ice leads in the Beaufort Sea" (Feb. 12). (S. Bachmeier, T. Wagner, CIMSS, 608-890-1980)

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Figure: GOES-18 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB image at 2050 UTC on February 9, 2026 -- showing thick, deep clouds in the ice phase (shades of yellow) during a period when a Winter Storm Warning was issued for higher elevations on the Big Island of Hawaii.

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Figure: Meteosat-9 Infrared image showing Cyclone Gezani making landfall along the east coast of Madagascar as a Category 3 storm on February 10, 2026.

PUBLICATIONS:

Paper published on DMSP monitoring of tropical cyclones: Tropical Cyclone Characterization via the DMSP Block 5D Satellite Sensor Suite. Authors: Jeffrey D. Hawkins, Christopher S. Velden, Derrick Herndon, Anthony J. Wimmers, Timothy L. Olander, Sarah Griffin, F. Joseph Turk, Thomas F. Lee, Steven D. Miller, C. P. Guard, and Joshua H. Cossuth. BAMS, 106, E2419-E2439. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-24-0248.1. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft have carried unique visible and infrared (VIS/IR) and passive microwave imagers/sounders in low earth orbit (LEO) for 40+ years. The Operational Line Scan (OLS) sensor included a novel scanning method that largely preserved spatial resolution across the expansive 3000 km swath, aiding analysts using cloud structure techniques. The OLS’s nighttime visible sensor also enabled first time views of TC using moon light scattered off the cloud top structure. In 1987 the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) provided the first operational passive microwave (PMW) imager with channels able to penetrate rain free clouds and thus permit TC rainband and eyewall structure previously unavailable from space-based sensors. The innovation continued in 2003 with the launch of the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) which collocated the PW imager and sounder channels, enabling enhanced geophysical retrievals, including TC variables. These data sets now have CIMSS created automated algorithms that extract accurate location, structure, and intensity estimates used world-wide by both the operational and the R&D communities. (Jeff Hawkins, CIMSS) 

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Figure: Two radically different TCs from 2004 [(left) Super Typhoon 19 W Chaba and (right) Typhoon 10 W Mindulle] in four-panel presentations showing coincident (top left) GEO Vis, (top right) IR-BD (Dvorak curve enhancement), (bottom left) SSMI 85-GHz H polarization, and (bottom right) SSMI 85-GHz color composite products.

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Figure: Example of D-MINT model input data for Hurricane Lee on 11 Sep 2023, including SSMIS F-18 (1954 UTC) 37- and 92-GHz H polarization, GEO IR, and the resulting D-MINT output showing the estimated Vmax probability distribution.

OTHER: