24 Jan 2000 -- GOES-8 water vapor winds animation (Java applet)

24-25 January 2000 -- GOES-8 Satellite Winds
East Coast Snow Storm

On 24-25 January, a storm system moved across the Southeastern U.S. producing widespread snow and ice accumulations. While the long range forecasts had indicated the potential for a major east coast storm (as much as 5 days in advance), the shorter range forecasts had difficulty in pinpointing the storm's path. On the 23-24, it looked as if the storm would move out to sea without greatly effecting the eastern seaboard. However, the storm did turn northeastward and was a major snowstorm for the eastern population centers.

The 2-day period has been divided into 3 hour intervals so that the animations will be managable by most computers. Times appear on the lower bar of the satellite images.

The first column ("Satellite winds") includes overlays of wind barbs, divergence, vorticity, and isotachs at 300 mb from the satellite analysis.

The next 3 columns can be used to compare the divergence, vorticity and isotachs from the satellite analysis with the RUC-2 hourly analyses. (The times of the RUC-2 analyses are labeled in the same color as the corresponding contours. Note that the RUC-2 has not yet been processed by our system for 00-09 UTC period on both days). In general, the RUC-2 wind fields contain more structure than the satellite winds because of the model's high resolution.

The last 3 columns can be used to compare the divergence, vorticity and isotachs from the satellite analysis with the NOGAPS forecast model (which is used as a first guess in computing the satellite winds). Note the the guess fields are updated every 6 hours. In general, the satellite analysis contains more detailed structure than the model fields.

Time (UTC)	Satellite winds	Div ergence (Sat vs. RUC-2)	Vorticity (Sat vs. RUC-2)	Speed (Sat vs. RUC-2)	Divergence (Sat vs. Guess)	Vorticity (Sat vs. Guess)	Speed (Sat vs. Guess)
00-03 24 Jan 00	X				X	X	X
03-06 24 Jan 00	X				X	X	X
06-09 24 Jan 00	X				X	X	X
09-12 24 Jan 00	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
12-15 24 Jan 00	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
15-18 24 Jan 00	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
18-21 24 Jan 00	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
21-00 24 Jan 00	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
00-03 25 Jan 00	X				X	X	X
03-06 25 Jan 00	X				X	X	X
06-09 25 Jan 00	X				X	X	X
09-12 25 Jan 00	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
12-15 25 Jan 00	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
15-18 25 Jan 00	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
18-21 25 Jan 00	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
21-00 25 Jan 00	X	X	X	X	X	X	X

24 Hour Loops (1 image per hour)

	Divergence	Vorticity	Speed
24 Jan 00	X
25 Jan 00

24-25 January 2000 -- GOES-8 Satellite Winds East Coast Snow Storm

24-25 January 2000 -- GOES-8 Satellite Winds
East Coast Snow Storm