MLB: Checking out the RGB Airmass GOES Sounder product

Thunderstorms over our region are fairly tame at the moment, so I began checking out some other interesting products.  Here is a shot of the RGB Airmass product produced by the GOES sounder.  GOES-R will have a similar image.  This basically takes information from four different wavelengths and combines them into one image.  Reddish colors here are high PV air associated with the jet…notice the band across the western Great Lakes.  Blue indicates a cooler airmass with associated midlevel clouds…notable across the northeast US.  Greenish colors are thicker low-level clouds with a more moist airmass…not surprisingly, the southeast US shows this.  Yellowish colors, such as over the Pacific Northwest, are low-level clouds in a cooler airmass.  White areas are deep cloud decks, often over convection, like Florida and the eastern Gulf.  Looping this product can show airmass movement and jet position/structure.  This can be useful as a check against NWP models.  I’ve posted both the RGB product (top) and the normal IR image at the same time (bottom) for comparison.  CL

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