Satellite Reading 101

[becca1695]

I have learned so much from reading all of the topics on this site, therefore I would first like to say THANK YOU to all of the administrators and users alike for answering all of my newbie questions (and showing patience doing so).

While we are waiting for Irene to do her thing, is there anyone who could give me a quick Satellite Reading tutorial? For instance, I was looking at:
http://www.intellicast.com/Local/USNati ... odnav=none

I can see Irene doing a quick hop down near 20, and I can see Harvey (or his remnants) up at the top of the picture. As for the rest, is it possible to see the ridge that you are talking about on this shot? What else do you see that helps you decide your predictions for the next day/s?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give. And, if this is an improper request, please let me know and remove this posting. Thanks!

[artist]

here is a really good site for helping to learn to read the satellite images. Hope it helps.

http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/training-bin/training.cgi

[vacanechaser]

Ok, as for the ridge of high pressure.....

notice in the loop the stream of clouds along the east coast... notice how they sort of arc around in the north near Maine and the northern states.. They arc from the southwest to the north, east and then southeast a bit..The clear area in the shot, between those clouds and the front just off the east coast, thats where the ridge is sitting right now.. to the east of the clouds and west of Irene. Thats the ridge that will steer Irene along the next few days...

There looks to be a trough in the lakes working its way southeastward.. But it doen not appear that it is digging into the US to much right now, but this may be the trough that weakens the ridge enough to allow Irene to turn to the northwest.. We will have to wait and see about that...

Jesse V. Bass III
http://www.vastormphoto.com
Hurricane Intercept Research Team

[Nimbus]

You can get some idea of a future ridge outline from watching 30 frames of the water vapor loop.

http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/GOES/goeseasthurrwv.html

There is still an ULL centered near 30N -73W that would need to lift out for the ridge to build
The ULL circulation is slowing which usually means pressures are starting to rise again.

Now that Irene is under less shear she should start to spin up and the models should do a better job with the track.

The steering ridge is more precisely defined by the 500 MB steering flow charts.
The ones I have seen have static isobars so its sometimes tough to see how the ridge is developing with 6 hour gaps.