The Beauty of Atmospheric Water Vapor

Meteorologists have no need to purchase artwork.

The reason is that imagery from satellites, radars, and numerical models is often stunning.  

Let me show you an example:  water vapor imagery from weather satellites.

Most of the satellite imagery you see on TV and the media uses wavelengths that DON'T show you the atmosphere.  Visible satellite imagery shows you how much solar radiation is reflected off clouds and surface.  Infrared satellite imagery tells you the temperatures of clouds and surface, based on how much radiation they emit.

But there are exceptions to this situation, and the most important is wave vapor imagery that displays the amount of radiation emitted by water vapor in the atmosphere.  Where the imagery is white, that means a great deal of moisture is in the upper troposphere (roughly 20,000-35,000 ft), where temperatures are relatively cool.  Dark shades indicate little upper-atmosphere moisture and plenty in the lower atmosphere.

We are ready....let's look at atmospheric art.  

Below is the water vapor image from Friday afternoon over the northeast Pacific.  Two beautiful swirls are evident....both associated with mid-latitude cyclones (low centers).  The dry dark areas are where dry air is sinking down behind and into the low centers.

Massive white areas to the east of the storms are associated with very moist, rising air.


Next, some tropical water vapor imagery on Saturday.  You can see tropical waves modulating the water vapor, with a huge striated intrusion in the lower southern portion of the image.  Stunning.  A weakening storm (swirl) is noted to the northeast.


Finally, let's look at the entire hemisphere. You an see the swirls associated with storms in the midlatitudes of both the northern and souther hemisphere.   But what REALLY sticks out are the bright light blobs in the tropics, associated with tall tropical thunderstorms.


So water vapor imagery is very pretty.   But there is much more.  Modeling output can be stunning..... such as the surface temperature forecasts for the UW WRF model (see below).


Someone should start an online weather gallery....perhaps a potent business idea.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Time of Year You Can See the Air Move

Image
  Most of the time, you can not see the air move.   You can feel it, but the complex, turbulent motions are invisible to you, except when it interacts with leaves and branches on trees and plants. But for a few weeks of the year, the sky is full of small, cotton-like tuffs that like a natural MRI machine reveals the complex three-dimensional motions of the atmosphere.   Cottonwood season.  And we right in the middle of it.   Being cottonwood aware is of particular value this year.  It reveals the active dispersion and movement of air that makes the outdoors essentially COVID safe, and thus should be of some comfort for those nervous about transmission outside. Cottonwood seeds are embedded in small cotton-like fibers.   A million seeds weigh about 3 pounds.  Yes, each seed and tuff weights about .000003 pounds.   And that fact, plus the cottonwood tuff, means that these seeds fall VERY, VERY, VERY slowly.   So slowly that they are excellent markers for the three-dimensional flow of the
Read more

Why so little lightning in the Pacific Northwest? And a very nice weekend ahead.

Image
During the past 24-hours, there have been a few lightning strokes over the region (see below) but nothing to write home about (see below). It turns out that the Pacific Northwest and the remainder of the West Coast have some of the lowest frequencies of thunderstorms in the entire country (see below). But why?    My podcast provides the answer. And I also give the weekend forecast....and I think most will like what I have to say. To listen to my podcast, use the link below or access it through your favorite podcast service. Some major podcast servers:     Like the podcast? Support on Patreon 
Read more

Strong Atmosphere River Heads into British Columbia and Southeast Alaska

Image
While the Northwest has been drier than normal, it has been drenching wet a few hundred miles to the north. An unusually strong atmospheric river ....a long current of moisture stretching southward to the subtropics...has been in place for days, bringing large amounts of water vapor to Alaska.   And the atmospheric river will be in place for several more days, slowly moving southward. To illustrate, the scale and beauty of the atmospheric river, here is a water vapor satellite image for 11 AM today. The lighter areas have more water vapor.  You can see the current of moisture extending from near Hawaii into central BC.  This current is the result of low pressure over the Gulf of Alaska and high pressure offshore of California.   A forecast of total water vapor content in the atmosphere for 11 PM tonight shows a healthy atmospheric river (white and blue colors indicate the higher amounts of moisture). As this atmospheric river slams into the mountainous West Coast, the air is forced to
Read more