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Offshore transport of glacial silt over the Gulf of Alaska

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 True Color RGB images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 (GOES-West) True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images created using Geo2Grid (above) showed the offshore transport of glacial silt across the Gulf of Alaska during the 17-18 November 2020 period. A strong pressure gradient between an inland dome of high pressure and a low pressure system off the coast of British Columbia (surface analyses) forced strong gap winds that accelerated down glacial valleys — lofting the glacial silt from the surface and carrying it off the coast. The most notable plume on both days was streaming out of the Copper River Valley.

Metop-A ASCAT surface scatterometer winds from this site (below) revealed wind speeds in the 30-40 knot range exiting the coast of the northern Alaska Panhandle at 0536 UTC on 18 November.

Metop-A ASCAT surface scatterometer winds [click to enlarge]

Metop-A ASCAT surface scatterometer winds [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-17, Metop, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Satellite winds