Dr. Rick Toracinta was my chase partner on several great storm chasing occasions and I was extremely fortunate to befriend him. Rick was a rising star in his research field of Polar Meteorology at the Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University.

The GOES-14 (GOES-O) satellite was launched on 27 June 2009, and is undergoing its Post Launch Test. The first calibrated full disk visible image (above) was received by the SSEC Data Center beginning at 17:30 UTC on 27 July 2009.