Global Weather & Climate Center
  • Home
  • About
    • GWCC Is
    • Where in the World is GWCC?
    • Contact Us
  • Global Regions
    • Africa
    • Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea
    • Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean
    • Central and South America
    • Europe
    • North America
    • Indian Ocean and Asia
    • Polar Regions
    • South Pacific Ocean and Australia
    • Western Pacific Ocean
  • Weather
    • Applied Meteorology >
      • Air Quality
      • Aviation
      • Droughts
      • Fire Weather
      • Flooding
      • Geosciences
      • Global Environmental Topics
      • Weather Observations
    • Weather Education
    • Weather History
    • Weather Research
    • Weather Safety and Preparedness
    • Severe Weather
    • Social Sciences
    • Space Weather
    • Tropical Cyclones
    • Weather and Health
    • Winter Weather
  • Climate
  • GWCC Global Imagery Archive
  • GWCC Window to the World
    • GOES-16 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • GOES-16 ABI Channel Description and Examples
    • GOES-16 ABI Satellite Products
    • GOES-17 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Himawari-8 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Meteosat-11 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
  • Kids Corner
    • Kindergarten to 5th Grade
    • 6th to 12th grade
    • Fun Facts & Weather Trivia
    • GWCC Weather Radar Education
    • GWCC Wheel of Science

Weather Observations Topics

How GOES-16 Transformed the Way We Studied the Latest April 2019 Nor'easter!

4/4/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture

Impressive 120-minutes of GOES-16 visible imagery and GLM lightning data leading into sunset over the center of the east coast cyclone. #ncwx. Full res: https://t.co/RMgBaeoWlr pic.twitter.com/y5Bqoo91Ls

— Bill Line (@bill_line) April 3, 2019
DISCUSSION: There is no question that as atmospheric and climate science entered the 21st century, atmospheric observations took on a whole new meaning with a state-of-the-art approach to how and why things are done. One such example to prove this point is regarding the extent to which the GOES-16 satellite imager blew away the atmospheric and climate science community in terms of its unique ability to observe the most recent powerful coastal storm which caught the attention of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coastal regions.
 
A perfect example of how the GOES-16 satellite imager stunned the entire meteorological world was in the context of this satellite’s ability to view the lightning occurring in association with this most recent coastal storm which rapidly intensified just offshore from the North Carolina coastline. More specifically, as GOES-16 watched the system developed both in the vicinity of the coastline and then just offshore from the North Carolina coastline, there was substantial lightning coverage which expanded within and near the center of the system’s core circulation as well as along the progressing cold front. What was most impressive was the extent of the detail which was provided by the GOES-16 Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) imaging platform.
 
What was most impressive was the fact that during the 120-minute footage clip of the GLM in action, there were even some moments where there appeared to be semi-symmetric lightning bursts in the center of the core circulation. This is a phenomenon which is often found in association with near-perfectly symmetric and very intense (and often mature) tropical cyclones. This finding proved that even though this extra-tropical cyclone developed rapidly just offshore from the U.S. East Coast, it did attain radar-based structure in the context of its precipitation which somewhat resembled a hybrid hurricane. This is a finding which is most common to be seen in association with rapidly intensifying low-pressure systems (i.e., in non-tropical situations) since when extra-tropical cyclones rapidly intensify, they can often take on characteristic appearances resembling low-end intensity tropical cyclones from a precipitation-based standpoint as far as regional Doppler radar observations are concerned. This structural resemblance occurs as a result of such rapidly intensifying systems quickly wrapping up and becoming more tightly-wrapped and more powerful low-pressure systems.
 
Thus, this case and point just goes to show that the atmosphere can produce quite impressive displays when the right conditions and circumstances are in place.
 
To learn more about other interesting weather observation topics from around the world, click here!
 
© 2019 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2019
    October 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016


    RSS Feed

© 2022, Global Weather and Climate Center
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
​Webmaster - Stephen Piechowski
  • Home
  • About
    • GWCC Is
    • Where in the World is GWCC?
    • Contact Us
  • Global Regions
    • Africa
    • Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea
    • Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean
    • Central and South America
    • Europe
    • North America
    • Indian Ocean and Asia
    • Polar Regions
    • South Pacific Ocean and Australia
    • Western Pacific Ocean
  • Weather
    • Applied Meteorology >
      • Air Quality
      • Aviation
      • Droughts
      • Fire Weather
      • Flooding
      • Geosciences
      • Global Environmental Topics
      • Weather Observations
    • Weather Education
    • Weather History
    • Weather Research
    • Weather Safety and Preparedness
    • Severe Weather
    • Social Sciences
    • Space Weather
    • Tropical Cyclones
    • Weather and Health
    • Winter Weather
  • Climate
  • GWCC Global Imagery Archive
  • GWCC Window to the World
    • GOES-16 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • GOES-16 ABI Channel Description and Examples
    • GOES-16 ABI Satellite Products
    • GOES-17 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Himawari-8 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Meteosat-11 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
  • Kids Corner
    • Kindergarten to 5th Grade
    • 6th to 12th grade
    • Fun Facts & Weather Trivia
    • GWCC Weather Radar Education
    • GWCC Wheel of Science