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Snowfall across northern Alaska

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm), Day Snow-Fog RGB and Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm), Day Snow-Fog Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and and Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB images (above) showed portions of the Brooks Range and eastern North Slope of Alaska that had significant snow cover on 18 September 2019. Some areas received 4-6 inches of snowfall during the previous day (a Winter Storm Warning had been issued, forecasting accumulations in the 4-8 inch range).

Snow cover appeared brighter white in the Visible images, and darker shades of gray in the Snow/Ice images; in the RGB images, snow was darker shades of red in the Day Snow-Fog, vs brighter shades of green in the Day Cloud Phase Distinction. Note that the Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB provided sharper images than the Day Snow-Fog RGB (below), since the former makes use of higher spatial resolution 0.64 µm data for its Green component.

GOES-17 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB and Day Sow-Fog RGB images at 2030 UTC [click to enlarge]

GOES-17 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB and Day Sow-Fog RGB images at 2030 UTC [click to enlarge]

Although much of the Bettles (PABT) area was masked by cloudiness on 18 September, that site received moderate to heavy snow for a few hours on 17 September (below), and reported a snow depth of 4 inches at 17 UTC (9 am local time).

Time series of surface data from Bettles, Alaska on 17 September [click to enlarge]

Time series of surface observation data from Bettles, Alaska on 17 September [click to enlarge]


Categories: Arctic, GOES-17, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Winter weather