Potential Vorticity anomaly approaching Baja California and Southern California

By Scott Bachmeier • 5 November 2019

GOES-17 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm), Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and Air Mass RGB images, with and without contours of PV1.5 pressure [click to play animation |MP4]

GOES-17 (GOES-West) Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm), Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and Air Mass RGB images (above) displayed the signature of dry, ozone-rich air associated with a Potential Vorticity (PV) anomaly approaching Baja California and Southern California on 05 November 2019. The “dynamic tropopause” — taken to be the pressure of the PV1.5 surface — descended to the 500 hPa level within this PV anomaly.

A GOES-17 Water Vapor image with plots of available NOAA-20 NUCAPS soundings (below) is labeled with sounding points within the core of the PV anomaly (Point 1) and within the core of the driest air (Point 2).