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Anomalously strong jet stream off the Arctic coast of Alaska

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with and without contours of AK-NAM40 model Max Wind isotachs [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-17 (GOES-West) Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images (above) include contours of AK-NAM40 model Max Wind isotachs — and showed the flow associated with an anomalously-strong jet stream, with its axis located just off the Arctic coast of Alaska on 03 December 2022.

Plots of Utqiagvik (Barrow, PABR) rawinsonde data from 1200 UTC and 1800 UTC (below) showed that the peak wind speeds at 1200 UTC were 151.7 knots from 300 hPa to 351.6 hPa.

Plots of Utqiagvik (Barrow) rawinsonde data from 1200 UTC and 1800 UTC [click to enlarge]

GOES-17 Upper-level Water Vapor images with contours of Moderate or Greater (MOG) Turbulence Probability within the 34-37 kft layer (below) did display areas of 10-50% probability just to the south of the jet axis (12 UTC winds/turbulence comparison) — and there were isolated Pilot Reports of light to moderate turbulence near the MOG contours over the northern Bering Sea. Real-time MOG Turbulence Probability products are available here.

GOES-17 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with contours of Turbulence Probability (within the 34-37 kft layer) and plots of Pilot Reports of turbulence  [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Categories: Arctic, Aviation, GOES-17