Fog/stratus off the US East Coast
A shallow bank of fog and stratus cloud was moving southward along the Delaware/Maryland/Virginia coast during the pre-dawn and early morning hours on 03 April 2007. GOES-12 3.9µm InfraRed (IR) imagery (above; Java animation) shows that the fog/stratus feature appeared to be “channeled” along the colder waters that were located immediately offshore (between the coastline and the warmer Gulf Stream waters farther offshore) — sea surface temperatures the previous afternoon were 45-55º F on the MODIS SST product. The fog dissipated over the warmer water (and also over land as the warm April sun heated the surface), while the fog immediately off the coast continued to move southward over the patch of colder waters. A comparison of the GOES and MODIS fog/stratus product around 03/04 UTC revealed that the edges of the fog/stratus were much sharper on the 1-km resolution MODIS imagery (and the 4-km resolution GOES fog/stratus product exhibited some “false signal” off the Virginia coast at that time).
GOES-12 visible imagery (below; Java animation) showed better details of the fog/stratus with the 1-km resolution channel; it is interesting to note that the fog/stratus appeared to thicken as a “shock wave” formed along the leading edge upon reaching Cape Henry in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area (MODIS true color images: Terra | Aqua).
