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Fog/stratus over Lake Michigan

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with hourly plots of surface reports [click to play animation | MP4]

As a warm and very humid air mass (surface analyses) moved northward across the relatively cool waters of Lake Michigan on 30 June 2018, GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) revealed complex interactions of the resulting fog/stratus with coastlines and islands — features such as “bow shock waves” and internal reflections of waves off the northern end of the lake could be seen.

A 30-meter resolution Landsat-8 false-color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) image viewed using RealEarth (below) provided a very detailed view of the fog/stratus structure over the northern end of the lake.

Landsat-8 false-color RGB image [click to enlarge]

Landsat-8 false-color RGB image [click to enlarge]

The Aqua MODIS Sea Surface Temperature product at 1734 UTC (below) showed SST values in the middle 60s to around 70ºF across the southern end of Lake Michigan (the southern lake buoy reported a water temperature of 66ºF), transitioning to SST values around 60ºF mid-lake. The northern lake buoy reported a water temperature of 54ºF — much colder than the surface air dew points that were in the low to middle 70s F, which explained the more widespread coverage of lake fog/stratus farther north.

Aqua MODIS Sea Surface Temperature product, with plots of surface and buoy reports [click to enlarge]

Aqua MODIS Sea Surface Temperature product, with plots of surface and buoy reports [click to enlarge]

Categories: Aqua, GOES-16, Landsat, Marine weather, MODIS, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images