CIMSS Satellite Blog

** The GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational data and are undergoing testing. **

As pointed out by NWS Carbou:

Beautiful gravity waves over Gulf of Maine today, at several different levels too! #GOES16 data is preliminary, non-operational. #mewx http://pic.twitter.com/jbQEbAnPzz

— NWS Caribou (@NWSCaribou) April 27, 2017

numerous packets of wave clouds associated with undular bores were seen on GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) imagery over the Gulf of Maine on the morning of 27 April 2017. A longer animation with surface wind plots (below; also available as an MP4 animation) revealed the presence of 3 distinct bore structures: the largest and most well-defined which was moving eastward, a second (and much smaller) off the coast of Cape Cod which was moving southeastward, and a third which as moving northwestward  (and eventually intersected the northern end of the primary eastward-moving bore).

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm) images, with surface winds (knots) plotted in cyan [click to play animation]

A comparison of GOES-16 and GOES-13 (GOES-East) Visible images (below; also available as an MP4 animation) showed that undular bore wave cloud structures were more clearly clearly seen with the higher spatial spatial resolution of GOES-16 (0.5 km at satellite sub-point, vs 1.0 km for GOES-13).

GOES-16 Visible (0.64 µm, left) and GOES-13 Visible (0.63 µm, right) images [click to play animation]

So what caused these undular bores to form and propagate across the Gulf of Maine? The northwestward-moving bore could have been initiated by surface outflow from thunderstorms associated with a mid-latitude cyclone (which was producing storm force to gale force winds: surface analyses) — GOES-16 Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (below; also available as an 88 Mbyte animated GIF) showed these thunderstorms which developed within the warm sector of the coastal low pressure system.

GOES-16 Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images [click to play MP4 animation]

from CIMSS Satellite Blog http://ift.tt/2oWkeeA