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Gravity waves north-northwest of Hawai`i

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-18 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-18 (GOES-West) Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images (above) displayed a quasi-stationary train of gravity waves north and northwest of Hawai`i on 20 October 2022. There were no pilot reports of turbulence in the vicinity of these waves — likely due to the lack of rapid wave propagation, and the non-interfering nature of their orientation.

These waves developed in a region of diffluent upper-tropospheric flow, in the exit region of a jet streak along the western edge of an anomalously-deep retrograding upper-level trough north of the islands — as shown in a 2-hour sequence of GOES-18 Water Vapor images with plots of GFS model 300 hPa winds valid at 12 UTC (below).

GOES-18 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with 12 UTC GFS model 300 hPa wind barbs plotted in yellow [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

The 300 hPa winds were at a pressure level closely corresponding to that of the peak GOES-West ABI Band 08 (6.2 µm) weighting function at that location — derived using GFS model fields (below).

GOES-West ABI Band 08 weighting function plot, derived from GFS model fields [click to enlarge]

Thanks to Matt Sitkowski (The Weather Channel) for bringing these gravity wave features to our attention!

Categories: General interpretation, GOES-18