Worldview 7



This mid-latitude cyclone (MLC) in the Southern Ocean displayed incredibly sharp features: the cold front is the thin cloud band running north-south, the warm front is in the thicker band running east-southeast and east, and a small occluded front in the cloud mass that sticks out west of the other two fronts. This system can be compared to the MLC image on the Worldview 6 post, however that was in the northern hemisphere.



In contrast to the system above, this MLC near New Zealand was nearly a week old and highly occluded. It is likely that defined fronts no long even existed. Strangely, this storm continued to live for several more days after this image.

 


Snow can be tricky as this image of the Tokyo area proves. On this day several portions of the city received a dusting of snow, mainly to the east, but this can be hard to discern from thin clouds that were also present. Note the highly snow capped and isolated peak of Mt. Fuji towards the bottom left of the image.

 


This swirl in a large deck of stratocumulus in the north Pacific is actually quite small. To be honest, I have no idea what it is, but it is cool looking.

 
 

 

These images of von Karman waves were taken on the same day by Terra/MODIS (morning, left) and Aqua/MODIS (afternoon, right). Upon close inspection, it appears the wave pattern moved about half a wavelength downwind in the hours between the two images.

 

 

Cloud streets often form when very cold air crosses over comparatively warmer water. The pockets of moist air immediately above the water can rapidly rise through the cold air, forming tiny cumulus or stratocumulus clouds aligned with the wind direction. In this case, the "land" is really a layer of sea ice.

 


These clouds were observed just south of a tropical cyclone invest area in the Coral Sea. Note the high cirrus outflow is oriented towards the southwest while the much lower cumulus clouds are oriented northwest-southeast.

 


A few islands are causing a series of ripples in this stratocumulus cloud bank in the Southern Ocean, just south of New Zealand. It is interesting to note that the wake changes directions slightly towards the bottom right, likely due to a small difference in air flow direction.

 


When air flow, water currents, and ice mix, this is what can result. The complex currents flowing around the Kuril Islands interacting with thawing sea ice in the region created this amazing series of swirls and waves out of drifting ice.