GOES-8 is the 8th Geostationary Observational Environmental Satellite ever built by NOAA, the governmental agency that operates it. There are currently three geostationary satellites in orbit over the United States. GOES-9 was launched in the spring of 1995 and is now operational. This cold front was strong, but cloudless over most of Texas and Oklahoma. Notice how the lakes in eastern Texas and Oklahoma show very clearly overnight.
Water has a much higher specific heat and retains heat from the summer sun long into the fall.
The land surface, on the other hand, has a low specific heat and shows a strong change daily from solar heating and nighttime cooling. Dust particles scatter more light in a direction away from the sun than back toward it. That means haze and dust are easily seen east of the satellite in the early morning and west of the satellite late in the day. This image has been stretched to enhance the contrast and make the dust more easily visible. This is a visible image of hurricane Opal just before landfall on October 4, 1995.