CIMSS-NOAA Weekly Report [ Archive ]

CIMSS-NOAA WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING AUGUST 8, 2025

DATA, INFORMATION, AND USE-INSPIRED SCIENCE:

PEOPLE, AWARDS AND RECOGNITION:

TRAVEL AND MEETINGS:

TRAINING AND EDUCATION:

SSEC/CIMSS Summer Interns Build Handheld Spectrometers: Dr. Sam Batzli (SSEC/Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies) hosted two undergraduate summer interns this year with the task of building hand held spectrometers based on a NASA do-it-yourself science education program called "STELLA" (Science & Technology Education for Land/Life Assessment). The students, Alexa Matson (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) and Inna Shapovalenko (Franklin and Marshall College) each built two spectrometers from scratch. They ordered the parts, soldered circuitry, and used three-d printers to craft the cases. They were given guidance from instrumentation specialists at SSEC. Once they assembled the instruments, the students tested and calibrated them, planned a field campaign, and collected data for a variety of land surface types (different types of vegetation, urban surfaces, water, etc.). Back in the lab, they compared the spectral signatures from their collections with spectra simultaneously collected by the Landsat-9 satellite over the same sample locations. They then worked with Alexa Ross, a science educator at SSEC, to design middle and high school curriculum involving use of the spectrometers to be shared with local teachers. The project was successful at all levels and taught real-world lessons in troubleshooting and applied science. At the conclusion of the internship, Inna sent the following statement "I wanted to thank you once again for the incredible internship experience this summer. It gave me valuable hands-on learning and confirmed my desire to continue pursuing a career in engineering." (S. Batzli, SSEC/CIMSS)

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Figure: Alexa (top center) and Inna assembling the spectrometers.

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: "Mesoscale Convective Vortex helps to force the development of a Mesoscale Convective System over northwest South Dakota" (Aug 1), "First recorded eruption of Krasheninnikov on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia" (Aug. 2) and "Bronco Fire in Arizona produces a pyrocumulonimbus cloud" (Aug. 7). (S. Bachmeier, CIMSS)

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Figure: Himawari-9 Ash RGB image at 0150 UTC on August 3, 2025 -- showing that that the volcanic cloud from the first recorded eruption of Krasheninnikov on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia was composed of both primarily ash (shades of red/pink) and a mixture of ash and SO2 (shades of yellow).

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Figure: GOES-18 Clean Infrared Window (10.3 µm, left) and Red Visible (0.64 µm right) images with an overlay of the Fire Mask derived product (red) at 2241 UTC on August 7, 2025 -- showing a pyrocumulonimbus cloud that was produced by the Bronco Fire in southeast Arizona.

PUBLICATIONS:

OTHER: