{"id":588,"date":"2007-12-17T23:30:32","date_gmt":"2007-12-17T23:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/588"},"modified":"2007-12-19T22:41:05","modified_gmt":"2007-12-19T22:41:05","slug":"snow-vs-stratus-cloud-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/588","title":{"rendered":"Snow vs stratus cloud discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2007\/12\/071217_modis_vis_snow-ice_anim.gif\" title=\"MODIS visible + snow\/ice channel images (Animated GIF)\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2007\/12\/071217_modis_vis_snow-ice_anim.gif\" title=\"MODIS visible + snow\/ice channel images (Animated GIF)\" alt=\"MODIS visible + snow\/ice channel images (Animated GIF)\" align=\"middle\" height=\"360\" width=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>AWIPS images of the MODIS visible and 1.6 \u00c2\u00b5m &#8220;snow\/ice channel&#8221; images from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/dailywxmap\/index_20071217.html\" title=\"17 December 2007 daily weather map\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>17 December 2007<\/strong><\/a> <em><strong>(above)<\/strong><\/em> demonstrate the utility of the snow\/ice channel for helping to identify areas of thin supercooled  water droplet stratus clouds that exist over a snow-covered satellite scene <em>(this MODIS imagery was mentioned in the NWS Milwaukee\/Sullivan <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2007\/12\/071217_kmkx_afd.text\" title=\"Area Forecast Discussion\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Area Forecast Discussion<\/strong><\/a> that afternoon)<\/em>. Note the semi-transparent nature of many of the stratus cloud patches, which allowed surface features (such as rivers, cities, and densely-forested areas) to be seen on the visible image.<\/p>\n<p>The GOES-12 sounder Cloud Top Height product <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em> suggested  that the tops of the thicker stratus cloud areas located over northern Wisconsin and northern Illinois were  9000-9800 feet above ground level <em>(yellow enhancement)<\/em>. Surface METAR data under those same cloud features indicated that the cloud bases were only 300-800 feet above ground level; so if the stratus clouds were really close to 9000 feet thick, it was remarkable to be able to see hints of surface features through such a cloud layer!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2007\/12\/NA_GOES_Sounder_DPI_CTH_20071217_1900.png\" title=\"GOES-12 sounder Cloud Top Height\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2007\/12\/NA_GOES_Sounder_DPI_CTH_20071217_1900.png\" title=\"GOES-12 sounder Cloud Top Height\" alt=\"GOES-12 sounder Cloud Top Height\" align=\"middle\" height=\"360\" width=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AWIPS images of the MODIS visible and 1.6 \u00c2\u00b5m &#8220;snow\/ice channel&#8221; images from 17 December 2007 (above) demonstrate the utility of the snow\/ice channel for helping to identify areas of thin supercooled water droplet stratus clouds that exist over a snow-covered satellite scene (this MODIS imagery was mentioned in the NWS Milwaukee\/Sullivan Area Forecast Discussion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,15,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interpretation","category-goes-sounder","category-modis"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}