Development of a “warm conveyor belt” signature near the back edge of Tropical Storm Earl?
AWIPS images of the GOES-13 6.5 µm water vapor channel data (above) showed Hurricane / Tropical Storm Earl as it moved inland across the Canadian Maritime provinces on 04 September – 05 September 2010. However, at the same time a large mid-latitude cyclone was intensifying over far western Quebec — and the water vapor imagery began to display what appeared to be a warm conveyor belt signature (below) that stretched northwestward across Quebec and over Hudson Bay. It was somewhat surprising to see such a warm conveyor belt signature develop so close to the proximity of the back edge of the cloud shield of Earl.
The GFS40 model winds within the 315-325 K isentropic layer (below) indicated that there was a strong 60-knot jet moving across the region where the warm conveyor belt signature formed on the water vapor imagery.
A pair of 1-km resolution MODIS 6.7 µm water vapor images (below) showed greater detail of the structure of the warm conveyor belt signature as it was forming.
A sequence of four 1-km resolution POES AVHRR 10.8 µm IR images (below) showed the banding structure that was forming within the conveyor belt feature.