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Anomalous cutoff low over the Beaufort Sea

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17 Mid-leve Water Vapor (6.9 µm, top) and GOES-15 Water Vapor (6.5 µm. bottom) imagess [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm, top) and GOES-15 Water Vapor (6.5 µm. bottom) images [click to play animation | MP4]

A comparison of Water Vapor images from GOES-17 (GOES-West) and GOES-15 Water Vapor images (above) showed the signature of an anomalously-deep closed low that was moving southeastward over the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska during the 11 June – 12 June 2019 period. The images are shown in the native projection of each satellite — GOES-17 is positioned over the Equator at 137.2º W longitude, while GOES-15 is located at 128º W. The improved GOES-17 spatial resolution (2 km at nadir, vs 4 km for GOES-15) and more frequent imaging (every 10 minutes, vs every 30 minutes for GOES-15) allowed for a better depiction of this cutoff low — including smaller-scale features near the center of the broad circulation.

GFS model 500 hPa geopotential height, wind, and standardized height anomaly (source) analyses at 6- hour intervals (below) indicated 500 hPa geopotential height anomaly values reached -3 to -4 sigma (lighter shade of violet) for this cutoff low.

6-hourly GFS 500 hPa geopotential height, wind, and standardized height anomaly [click to enlarge]

6-hourly GFS 500 hPa geopotential height, wind, and standardized height anomaly [click to enlarge]

Categories: Arctic, GOES-15, GOES-17