Regional And Mesoscale Meteorology Team Daily Satellite Discussion
Monday April 21, 1997
Today's image choice focuses on the western US. There are numerous instances of wave clouds
caused by terrain. At first glance, a 4km visible loop over the area depicted only glimpses
of these waves as other cloud areas passed over/through them. The water vapor and reflectivity
product imagery also indicated portions of some but not all of the waves. The reflectivity
product showed many of them to be highly reflective...indicating water clouds. In order to better
show the wave clouds, I ran the "average image" RAMSDIS application on the loop. That's the image
you see above. It clearly shows the Colorado mountain range (Rockies), the Utah mountain range (Wasatch),
and the Nevada mountains (Shoshone and Monitor mountain ranges ) as being the obstacles that are causing
the wave patterns.
The most intense wave patterns (distinguished by the spacing between the waves) are occurring just to the
east of the North-South oriented mountains. You may also note differences in the scales of the waves.
For instance, look at eastern Colorado versus central Colorado or Nevada. It's important to note that
these wave patterns indicate stable conditions in the layer in which they are occurring. You can also see
some of the remaining snowpack in the mountains of Wyoming and Idaho.