Satellite cloud pictures of a cyclone over the Atlantic Ocean

✍ Scribed by S. Fritz

• Book ID: 104573172
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1961
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 909 KB
• Volume: 87
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49708737304

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

A composite of Tiros 1 pictures describing the cloud system in a mature cyclone, centred in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Ireland, is described. Comparison of the pictures with conventional meteorological data shows that a stratiform cloud surrounding the storm was identical in position with a warm moist tongue of air flowing around the storm. In the centre of the storm where the clouds were more broken, giving the appearance of cumuliform clouds, a large mass of cold, dry air extended from the surface up to the tropopause above 400mb. A few areas of steady precipitation were present in the stratiform cloud regions while more scattered showers existed in the central cumuliform region. An area of relatively high winds circled the storm, in conformity with the expectations from the thermal wind relation when cold air and warm air layers reside side by side. A brief comparison is made between the vertical motion computations based on conventional data and the cloud areas.