MySatrep

Here in the Houten, the sky was clear this morning, with a beautiful view of the moon and Venus in the sky. Rain is predicted later in the day, looks like the WFS 1 is moving eastwards. Here is a Google Earth Image of a balloon trajectory forecast (0600UTC) using locations of De Bilt. The cloud information is for 0700 UTC, provided by Google Earth. The WFS 1 is in the bottom left corner.

Regarding the SATREP for today. There is a WFS identified by SATREP over Belgium (1) and one over Finland (2). Both have a CF in CA along the vertical element of the letter T which I described in a previous post. WFS 1 is a T rotated from vertical to the right. WFS 2 is more or less straight. Actually, this T in the isotachs looks more like a pickaxe.

The frustrating thing about isotachs is that the direction of motion is not obvious to me. The wind direction from the local station in Houten is coming from the S (0830 UTC). But midnight it was more W-SW, which corresonds with the midnight radiosondes. Belgium, Netherlands and North France all have the wind coming from 270 degrees, i.e. from the west (UTC 0000, 6 hours earlier than the SATREP report I am looking at). There is a strong gradient in the isotachs (oriented North south) at the edge of the WFS1. The whole edge is moving east (Check EUMETSAT loops).

MySatrep

There is a beautiful WF Shield (WFS) over the Atlantic Ocean, south of Iceland. No radiosondes, therefore. There is another one over Eastern Europe that looks more lumpy in the IR.

The diagram to the left is a sketch of the identifying characteristics of a WFS which I have learned from SATREP. The parameter is called temperature advection (TA700) and I usually find a WFS by locating these contours, red is for warm advection and blue (dashed in the SATREP report) is called cold advection. I'll try to describe these in another post. Other characteristics are being associated with a trough and ridge in the H300 (geopotential height contours at 300hPa). The isotach contours form a T, where the top of the T is in line with the WA line of clouds and the vertical part of T is in line with the CA area.

Introduction

I use satellite data to observe the earth. Up to now, my observations have been recorded in an assortment of notebooks and sheets of paper. This blog will help organize my notes and serve as future reference.

A full description of my research can be found at:

RMD Observations

Questions and comments (and corrections) are welcome.