California fog
4-km resolution GOES-11 and 1-km resolution MODIS fog/stratus product
AWIPS images of the 4-km resolution GOES-11 fog/stratus product and the 1-km resolution MODIS fog/stratus product (above) showed widespread fog and stratus clouds in the central valleys of California as well as over the adjacent offshore waters of the Pacific Ocean on 08 January 2009. With the finer spatial resolution of the MODIS imagery, you can see several narrow fingers of fog that extended eastward into the smaller river valleys along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Range — as well as the presence of several ship tracks in the stratus cloud deck over the ocean.
4-km resolution GOES-11 and 1-km resolution MODIS fog/stratus product
A closer view of the Sacramento Valley region (above) and the San Joaquin Valley region (below) reveals the intricate structure along the eastern edges of the fog and stratus features in those areas. The superior spatial resolution of the MODIS imagery can be very important to a variety of weather analysis and forecasting tasks: for example, trying to determine exactly which portions of Interstate 5 might have traffic slow-downs due to fog.
4-km resolution GOES-11 and 1-km resolution MODIS fog/stratus product