Gigantic Jets over Hawaii: Enhanced
Taken by Frankie Lucena on July 24, 2017 @
Gemini Observatory/AURA
Click photo for larger image
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Camera Used: Canon Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Exposure Time: 30/1
Aperture: f/1.8
ISO: 1600
Date Taken: 2017:07:27 16:20:05
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Details:
I was able to obtain the original JPG images from William Straka of SSEC and Tom Cumming of the Gemini Observatory. I enhanced them to better show the colors seen in Gigantic Jets. I have witnessed two of them in the past and can honestly say that
seeing photos of them can not compare to seeing them with your own eyes. They are truly Spectacular !!!
Here is a copy/paste of the email William sent me:
First of all, wanna thank Frankie for giving me the heads up about this interesting case. Also want to Thank Tom and Andy at the Gemini Observatory at Mauna Kea for helping me out with the times on the images from their webcam. I CC'd my fellow researchers, Jia Yue and Steve Miller, on this email as well.
So, a little background, Frankie sent me a screen capture from the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, which captured some spectacular Gigantic Jets and some gravity waves on the night of July 24, 2017 north of the island of Hawaiʻi wanting some VIIRS or GOES imagery of the storm. The initial image with a Jet didn't pan out, since the storm was right on the edge of a SNPP pass. But... there was another, better, pass at 1243Z (02:43 HAST on 24 July). In looking through the webcam video, there was another blue jet at that same time, along with some convectively generated mesospheric GWs
What I did was to take the VIIRS imagery from 0243 am HAST and label all of the various features in the imagery. I attempted to put the approximate location and direction of the webcam as well (red dot and arrow) as best I could. Unfortunately the mesospheric GWs are not readily visible in the DNB, probably because they were fairly faint. However, the lightning flashes were scene (as streaks) in the DNB imagery. Also the IR iamgery clearly shows some very intense convection and likely some overshooting tops as well. I also labeled some features on a screen grab from the video loop as well.
So, a great case of correlating space based and ground based imagery, even if we didn't get the mesospheric GWs. :)
Again, thanks for all of the help from everyone on this. I can get a non-labeled version too, if people are interested.
William Straka III
Researcher
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC)
Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS)
Credits: Gemini Observatory/AURA
NOAA,and NASA for the Suomi NPP VIIRS satellite images.
William Straka III of CIMSS/SSEC and Tom Cumming of Gemini Observatory for sending me the original JPG files and for follow the up information.
I want to also include Steve Cullen for discovering and making me aware of this event.
Photographer's website:
http://https://www.flickr.com/photos/frankie57pr
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