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Cyclogenesis along the US East Coast

By Scott Bachmeier •


The approach of an upper-tropospheric Potential Vorticity (PV) anomaly induced rapid cyclogenesis just off the US East Coast on 04 February 2019, with the surface low rapidly occluding (surface analyses). The eastward-propagating PV Anomaly was apparent on GOES-16 (GOES-East) Air Mass RGB images from the AOS site (below) as darker shades of orange — transitioning to shades of red as the tropopause descended to lower altitudes bringing more ozone-rich air from the stratosphere into the atmospheric column.

GOES-16 Air Mass RGB images [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 Air Mass RGB images [click to play MP4 animation]

A sequence of Infrared Window images from Terra MODIS (11.0 µm) and NOAA-20/Suomi NPP VIIRS (11.45 µm) (below) showed the cyclone at various stages of development. The surface low passed over  the Cape Lookout, North Carolina buoy as it was intensifying, with winds gusting to 44 knots around 12 UTC (winds/pressure | peak wind gusts).

Infrared Window images from Terra MODIS (11.0 µm) and NOAA-20/Suomi NPP VIIRS (11.45 µm), with plot of fixed buoy reports [click to enlarge]

Infrared Window images from Terra MODIS (11.0 µm) and NOAA-20/Suomi NPP VIIRS (11.45 µm), with plots of fixed buoy reports [click to enlarge]

A similar sequence of Visible images from Terra MODIS (0.65 µm) and NOAA-20/Suomi NPP VIIRS (0.64 µm) (below) showed the cyclone during daylight hours.

Visible images from Terra MODIS (0.65 µm) and NOAA-20/Suomi NPP VIIRS (0.64 µm), with plots of fixed buoy reports [click to enlarge]

Visible images from Terra MODIS (0.65 µm) and NOAA-20/Suomi NPP VIIRS (0.64 µm), with plots of fixed buoy reports [click to enlarge]

===== 05 February Update =====

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images [click to play MP4 animation]

After the primary center of circulation began to weaken, a pair of residual lower-tropospheric vortices (surface analyses) was seen to persist on GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above), rotating around each other in a binary interaction known as the Fujiwhara effect. The two vortices were also evident in NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 0620 UTC (below) — in spite of the lack of illumination from a New Moon, airglow alone was sufficient to provide an impressive “visible image at night” with the Day/Night Band. (note: the NOAA-20 VIIRS images are incorrectly labeled as Suomi NPP)

NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 0620 UTC [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 0620 UTC [click to enlarge]

During the early morning hours, an undular bore was evident on GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (below), moving toward the westernmost vortex. As the bore began to move over warmer waters of the Gulf Stream, it slowly dissipated.

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

Although not particularly intense, this slow-moving midlatitude cyclone was able to draw an appreciable amount of moisture northward from the tropics/subtropics as shown by the MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product (below).

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product [click to play animation | MP4]

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product [click to play animation | MP4]

Categories: GOES-16, MODIS, NOAA-20, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, Terra, VIIRS