VIIRS imagery and NUCAPS profiles near the North Pole

By Scott Bachmeier • 22 August 2019

Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images [click to enlarge]

A sequence of 4 consecutive Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.74 µm) and Infrared Window (11.4 µm) images (above) showed a small swirl of clouds associated with a weak area of low pressure near the North Pole — north of Greenland (surface analyses) — on 22 August 2019.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 µm) images, with plots of NUCAPS availability [click to enlarge]

There were Suomi NPP NUCAPS soundings available in the vicinity of the surface low (above) — profiles from the 4 squared green dot locations (green dots indicate successful sounding retrievals from both the CrIS and ATMS instruments) which were closest to both the surface low and the North Pole (below) revealed characteristically-low arctic tropopause heights of around 7-8 km, and surface temperatures dropping to below freezing at the 2 most northerly points of 88.28º and 88.57º N latitude. Note: the Suomi NPP (SNPP) CrIS anomaly that began on 24 March 2019 was resolved via a switch to the redundant Side-2 electronics on 24 June — so CrIS data once again became available for incorporation into SNPP NUCAPS soundings beginning on 01 August. Training material for NUCAPS in AWIPS is available here.

NUCAPS temperature (red) and dew point (green) profiles [click to enlarge]

According to GCOM-W1 AMSR2 data (source), this weak surface low was over a portion of the Arctic Ocean where sea ice concentration was still high (below).

GCOM-W1 AMSR2 sea ice concentration [click to enlarge]

Categories: Arctic, GCOM-W1, NUCAPS, Suomi NPP, VIIRS

CIMSS Satellite Blog

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VIIRS imagery and NUCAPS profiles near the North Pole