Meteorologists do not need to purchase artwork.
The reason is that images from satellite, radar and digital models are often very beautiful.
Let me show you an example: steam images from weather satellites.
Most of the satellite images you see on TV and media use wavelengths that do NOT show you the atmosphere. Satellite images show you how much solar radiation is reflected off clouds and surfaces. Infrared satellite imagery tells you the temperature of clouds and surfaces, based on the amount of radiation they emit.
But there are exceptions to this situation, and the most important one is slightly wave image displays the amount of radiation emitted by water vapor in the atmosphere. Where the image is white, that means a lot of the moisture is in the upper troposphere (about 20,000-35,000 ft), where temperatures are relatively cool. The shadows show little moisture upstairs and more moisture downstairs.
We’re ready….let’s take a look at atmospheric art.
Below is an image of steam from Friday afternoon over the northeastern Pacific. Two beautiful vortices are evident….both are related to mid-latitude (low center) cyclones. The dry dark regions are where dry air is sinking behind and entering the low centres.
The huge white areas east of the storms are associated with very humid, rising air.
Up next, some tropical steam pictures on Saturday. You can see the steam-corrected tropical waves, with very large veined intrusions in the lower southern part of the image. Amazing. A weakening storm (cyclonic) was recorded in the northeast.
Finally, let’s look at the entire hemisphere. You can see the vortices associated with hurricanes in the average regions of both the northern and southern hemispheres. But what REALLY emerged was the bright blobs in the tropics, associated with high tropical thunderstorms.
So the steam image is very nice. But there is much more. The modeling output can be very impressive ….. such as surface temperature prediction for the UW WRF model (see below).
