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Low pressure over the Gulf of Alaska

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and Air Mass RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and Air Mass Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (above) showed a Storm Force low (surface analyses) developing in the Gulf of Alaska on 26 November 2020. As the storm intensified, trends of warming//drying on the Water Vapor images and brighter orange/red hues on the Air Mass RGB images near the center of circulation indicated the development of a potential vorticity anomaly that lowered the dynamic tropopause (bringing dry, ozone-rich  air into the upper portion of the atmospheric column).

A toggle between Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images (below) showed the storm at 2228 UTC.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-17, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, VIIRS