GOES-13 Brightness Temperature Difference (3.9 µm – 10.7 µm), GOES-R IFR Probability and GOES-R Cloud Thickness at 1115 UTC on 17 January 2017 (Click the enlarge)

Dense Fog Advisories (National Weather Service Website) and IFR SIGMETs (Aviation Weather website) were issued early in the morning for dense fog over the southeastern United States.  The toggle above from 1115 UTC on 17 January shows the Brightness Temperature Difference field (3.9 µm – 10.7 µm), the GOES-R IFR Probability Field, and the GOES-R Cloud Thickness fields associated with this dense fog event.  Note the presence of high clouds over northern South Carolina and western North Carolina — the dark region in the Brightness Temperature Difference enhancement — prevents the brightness temperature difference field from highlighting that region of reduced ceilings/visibilities.  The GOES-R Cloud Thickness field is not computed under cirrus either, as it relates 3.9 µm emissivity of water-based clouds to cloud thickness (based on a look-up table generated using data from a SODAR off the West Coast of the United States).  If cirrus blocks the view, then, neither the Brightness Temperature Difference field nor the GOES-R Cloud Thickness field can give useful information about low clouds.

In contrast, the GOES-R IFR Probability field does give useful information in regions where cirrus clouds (and low clouds/fog) are present — because Rapid Refresh information about the lower troposphere can be used.  IFR Probability values will be smaller in those regions because satellite predictors are unavailable, and the Probability incorporates both predictors from satellites and from Rapid Refresh model output — if the satellite predictors are missing because of cirrus, the IFR Probability values will be affected. Despite the smaller values, however, the IFR Probability fields in regions of cirrus are giving useful information for this event.

GOES-R Cloud thickness fields can be used to estimate Fog dissipation using the last GOES-R Cloud Thickness field produced before twilight conditions at sunrise (shown below for this case). (GOES-R Cloud Thickness is not computed during twilight conditions because of rapidly changing 3.9 µm emissivity related to the reflected solar radiation as the sun rises, or as it sets). This scatterplot gives the relationship between thickness and dissipation time after the Cloud Thickness time stamp (1215 UTC in this case).  In this case, the thickest fog is near Athens GA;  the algorithm predicts that clearing should happen there last, at about 1515 UTC.

GOES-R Cloud Thickness, 1215 UTC on 17 January 2017 (Click to enlarge)