24 April 2014
Oh, The Things You Can See From On High
Posted by Dan Satterfield
I spent a little while looking at today’s images from NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites with their amazing MODIS imager that sends back true colour images from an altitude of around 700 km. Here are a few things I spotted in just a short period of browsing this evening. Click any image for a much larger view.
Sand and soot in NW China. A huge sandstorm caused schools to close in China. The view from Aqua shows it well. The brown cloud of soot is now almost a constant over China. One reason why they are feverishly working to get away from “clean” coal. It’s choking them to death!
Here is a view of just some Sahara sand blowing north into Greece and the Balkans.
Sand from the Sahara frequently makes it to Florida, and earlier in April it caused serious air quality issues in London!
and nearby, a nice view of the Nile Delta and the Suez Canal.
To the south you can see the green strip of irrigated land along the Nile. A factor of the local landscape for well over 3000 years.
Now, notice the sea breeze front along the Florida coast. The land heats much faster than the water on a sunny day, and this warms the air above it, causing the pressure to drop. This allows cool air under higher pressure over the water to push inland. This cooler air is stable and the low-level temperature inversion keeps skies clear. Notice what happens around Mobile Bay… the sea-breeze goes MUCH farther inland??? Why?? My guess is that the shallow waters of Mobile Bay are much cooler and a south wind is allowing that cool air to penetrate much farther inland. You also have a large wetland area around the delta of the Tensaw River that keeps the air cooler.
The sea-breeze along the Florida, and Alabama coast today.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.