Meteorological explanation on this satellite image...

[beaudodson]

Could someone give me their thoughts on this?

http://www.usawx.com/SAT_STATENE_VIS_ANIss.gif
This animation

1. Why do the clouds in Southwest Nebraska move rapidly to the south and a bit southwest...against the flow. Other clouds are streaming northeast.

2. What type of clouds would those be?

3. In central/northcentral Kansas there are lines (five or six of them) - from west to east - of clouds. The beginning points of the clouds never seem to move as they appear to "blow off" to the east. Why do they never actually move?

4. What causes them to line up like that from east to west with breaks in between of say 20 miles or so? These are cumulus clouds correct? They remind me of smoke showing up on satellite...the base of the smoke plume itself never moves but rather just blows off to the east.

5. What causes the sharp edge to those clouds north to south. It appears to be almost clear just west of all of that in Central Kansas...between West and Central Kansas.

6. Across Northeast Nebraska there are lines of clouds - maybe five or six lines of them...they move rapidly eastward. What causes them to be in lines like that (like a washboard). They appear to be higher clouds...as cumulus is streaming northeast under them.


Thanks

 

[Billy Griffin]

Beau,

The SW Nebraska feature looks like low clouds (low stratus deck) associated with a decaying outflow boundary. The feature over east/east-central NE appears to be associated with some type of impulse within the jet stream. Can't really say how they line up or how/why they form like that. The nearly stationary clouds in Kansas - I really can't say for sure either, but perhaps clouds associated with an area of increasing mid-level moisture... and that area too almost resembles a stationary boundary (old outflow boundary now stalled) from the precip in Iowa?

Far more experienced and educated folks will likely have a significantly different answer than mine, but at least on the outflow boundary feature in SW Kansas, I'm pretty confident.

 

[Esa Tuunanen]

Wind direction at different altitudes can vary lot (check soundings) so various clouds moving to different directions is completely normal.
And interaction between airmasses moving to different directions causes turbulence and wave patterns to boundary surface.



Check MODIS gallery for lot of nice cloud patterns

 

[Willie Dines]

Wind direction at different altitudes can vary lot (check soundings) so various clouds moving to different directions is completely normal.
And interaction between airmasses moving to different directions causes turbulence and wave patterns to boundary surface.

You beat me to it Esa, I was going to say the same thing lol

Willie

 

[B Ozanne]

#6: Those lines are most likely caused by waves in the atmosphere. Where the air is moving up clouds form. They move quickly for two reasons. First, the air is moving fast. Second, the waves me be propagating faster than the air is moving.

#1 & #2: Those look like low clouds. Either a stratus deck or maybe fog.

 

[Marko Korosec]

Hi Beau,

1) & 2) Agreed with Bill, those are low clouds is SW Nebraska, most likely status deck or even a fog like this surface map shows: http://rap.ucar.edu/weather/surface/displaySfc.php?region=ict&endDate=20070321&endTime=16&duration=0. Looks like they're moving south with the LL winds behind the surface cold front.

3) & 4) Yes, those are Cumulus clouds. Looks like they're aligned to the topography features there causing local covergences which line up the cumulus field along the hill peaks. It remains more clear over the surrounding valley. I have seen the same some kind of linear formations on satellites here as well where we have more orographic influences causing stonger thermal convection along the slopes. This also could be confirmed with "they actually don't move" since a hilly terrain is fixed, so until you have conditions it will be aligned to terrain and starting from the same point/line.

5) There must be a boundary as well, as you can notice west edge of the cumulus field going eastwards later when airmass moves further east. Its clear west of the cumulus field in dry air behind the boundary/front.

6) Agreed with Bill and Esa as well, those high clouds are made with waves/turbulence in the upper air. Usually linear cloud formations become parallel to the waves.

Marko

 

[beaudodson]

Thanks for the replies...all very interesting.