Worldview 6

The obligatory von Karman wave image.

 



Here is a very sharply defined mid-latitude cyclone (MLC). Below is a surface map from about the same time; the MLC in the above image is the 989mb low on the map.



 

This all that remains of a storm system that has since dissipated. The line of clouds on the left marks the edge of the outflow that originated from the storm's downdraft. The wisps of cirrus in the center are the remains of the storm's anvil top.

 

Complex wind and water currents have twisted some sea ice into a tight spiral.

 



These images of the Gulf of Carpentaria were taken on the same day by the two different MODIS instruments. The image from Terra/MODIS (morning) shows clear skies over the Gulf. Meanwhile, the Aqua/MODIS (afternoon) image finds a lone, but vigorous, storm cloud has developed. Had an image been made a few hours later, it would probably look something like the image of the remains of a dissipated storm above.



 

The many MLCs in this image look as though a series of fronts formed a chain stretching all the way from the central US to a mature MLC out over the mid-Atlantic.

 



Something is odd here. Look closely and notice how clouds are forming on different sides of these islands. Normally one would expect wind, which affects the location of clouds, to be in roughly the same direction over this small area.



 



In mid-Janurary this hurricane force MLC tracked northeast across the northwest Pacific. Notice that the main front/trough extends all the way to Borneo.



 



Here, a thin layer of high cirrus is casting a shadow on the much lower stratocumulus layer just off the coast of New Zealand.



 

 

As a tropical cyclone makes its way toward the pole it encounters heavy shear and large temperature gradients which causes the storm to morph into an extratropical cyclone (MLC) in a process known as extratropical transition. However, before this is completed tropical cyclones are often torn apart by wind shear or a front. In this series of images of the South Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Gino can clearly be seen transitioning. This storm was not torn apart because soon after extratropical transition commenced, it halted its pole-ward motion, thus preventing it from encountering the full force of the westerlies. These images were taken once a day from January 14 to January 18, starting from the top. On the 14th, Gino was still classified as a tropical cyclone, although the cloud mass is clearly beginning to shift eastward. As time went on, one of the rainbands on the east side of the storm condensed into a sharp line of clouds while the sky around it cleared. These clouds seem to signal the formation of a weak cold front. Meanwhile, the clouds on the south side (pole-ward side) of the cyclone were stretched out to the east due to the westerlies. In time this came to look very much like an occluded and/or warm front. On the last image (18th), a particularly cloud free zone just west of the "cold front" appears to be a dry slot caused by a dry conveyor belt.