Mid-South Distrails

GOES-8 Visible Satellite Loop

This loop runs from 1545Z (9:45 a.m. CDT) October 21 to 1815Z October 22 (12:30 p.m. PDT October 21), every 15 minutes except for missing 18Z. The loop has 10 frames totalling just under 1.8 MB; so it may a few minutes to load on a fast connection. [The last picture will be labelled "020118/1815 GOES8 VIS".] Once loaded, you can stop the loop, go to the beginning, then step forward frame-by-frame.

DISSIPATION TRAILS (a.k.a. Distrails)

Aircraft evaporation trails originally made through clouds in the western (left) part of the area move rapidly eastward and expand due to dispersion, as the cloud mass is bodily advected (blown) eastward in the air flow. Note how little distortion of the trails occurs; they remain nearly straight. This indicates a remarkably uniform flow field at the level where the distrails were created -- a homogeneity which is unusual across over 100 miles of an air mass.

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