{"id":7627,"date":"2011-02-19T23:59:20","date_gmt":"2011-02-19T23:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=7627"},"modified":"2011-02-22T22:25:01","modified_gmt":"2011-02-22T22:25:01","slug":"high-winds-and-wildfire-activity-over-the-mid-atlantic-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/7627","title":{"rendered":"High winds and wildfire activity over the Mid-Atlantic region"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"GOES-13<\/a>

GOES-13 6.5 \u00c2\u00b5m water vapor channel imagery (click image to play animation)<\/p><\/div>\n

AWIPS images of 4-km resolution GOES-13 6.5 \u00c2\u00b5m “water vapor channel” data (above; click image to play animation)<\/em><\/strong> revealed an extensive “mountain wave signature” across much of the Mid-Atlantic region of the US on 19 February 2011<\/a><\/strong>. Strong winds (gusting to 71 mph in Virginia and 63 mph in Maryland and Pennsylvania)<\/em> in the wake of a cold frontal passage were interacting with the terrain of the Appalachian Mountains to create the widespread mountain waves — and some of the mountain waves were responsible for pilot reports of moderate to severe turbulence<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1-km resolution MODIS 6.7 \u00c2\u00b5m water vapor images (below)<\/em><\/strong> offered a more detailed view of the mountain wave structure.<\/p>\n

\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS 6.7 \u00c2\u00b5m water vapor images <\/p><\/div>\n

On occasion, these mountain waves appear in “clear air’ with no clouds present — this can be seen from Virginia to the Delmarva Peninsula in a comparison of a MODIS 0.65 \u00c2\u00b5m visible image with the corresponding MODIS 6.5 \u00c2\u00b5m water vapor image (below)<\/em><\/strong>. Aircraft sometimes encounter “clear air turbulence” under such circumstances.<\/p>\n

\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS 0.65 \u00c2\u00b5m visible image + MODIS 6.5 \u00c2\u00b5m water vapor image<\/p><\/div>\n

It is interesting to note that the MODIS 2.1 \u00c2\u00b5m near-IR “snow\/ice channel” image (below) <\/strong><\/em>displayed\u00c2\u00a0 a signature of what appeared to be the effect of atmospheric gravity waves over the adjacent offshore waters. A similar signature was discussed on the MODIS Image of the Day<\/strong><\/a> site off the coast of New Zealand on 21 December 2010.<\/p>\n

\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS near-IR 2.1 \u00c2\u00b5m "snow\/ice channel" image<\/p><\/div>\n

The combination of strong winds and dry vegetation (MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index<\/a><\/strong>) created an environment favorable for wildfire activity — and on this day there were more than 100 wildfires reported across the state of Virginia alone. The “hot spots” signatures (black to yellow to red color enhancement)<\/em> from many of the larger fires could be seen on 4-km resolution GOES-13 3.9 \u00c2\u00b5m imagery, with many more of the smaller fires exhibiting such signatures on the corresponding 1-km resolution POES AVHRR 3.7 \u00c2\u00b5m shortwave IR image (below)<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"GOES-13<\/a>

GOES-13 3.9 \u00c2\u00b5m shortwave IR image + POES AVHRR 3.7 \u00c2\u00b5m shortwave IR image<\/p><\/div>\n

A MODIS \u00e2\u20ac\u0153true color\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Red\/Green\/Blue (RGB) image (below; displayed using Google Earth)<\/em><\/strong> showed a few of the longer smoke plumes that were emanating from the largest fires located from western Virginia to the Washington, DC area.<\/p>\n

\"MODIS<\/a>

MODIS true color RGB image (displayed using Google Earth)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AWIPS images of 4-km resolution GOES-13 6.5 \u00c2\u00b5m “water vapor channel” data (above; click image to play animation) revealed an extensive “mountain wave signature” across much of the Mid-Atlantic region of the US on 19 February 2011. Strong winds (gusting to 71 mph in Virginia and 63 mph in Maryland and Pennsylvania) in the wake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21,6,11,32,12,26,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avhrr","category-aviation","category-fire-detection","category-goes-13","category-google-earth","category-modis","category-poes","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627","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=7627"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7629,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627\/revisions\/7629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}