NASA's first images of "Bill," "Ana," and "Claudette. August 17, 2009. Click title to entry, thank you.

"Bill" is losing contact with the water vapor of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone. In losing contact with its water vapor source the velocity is slowing. I remain somewhat skeptical of the continued northern vs. western movement of "Bill." If there is a slowing in the velocity there may not be enough speed to propel the storm north so much as a meander to the west and into South Carolina. It will be interesting to watch the progression. But, here again, the further north the storm moves the less velocity it has. If "Bill" were to become a 'near shore' storm it could have the chance of increasing its velocity and decreasing its central pressure again.


August 21, 2009
1630z
UNISYS Infrared GOES East Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop)

...On August 17, 2009, at 1:31 p.m. EST, the latest NASA/NOAA geostationary weather satellite, called GOES-14, returned its first full-disk thermal infrared (IR) image, showing radiation with a wavelength of 10.7 micrometers emanating from Earth. Infrared images are useful because they provide information about temperatures. A wavelength of 10.7 micrometers is 15 times longer than the longest wavelength of light (red) that people can see, but scientists can turn the data into a picture by having a computer display cold temperatures as bright white and hot temperatures as black. The hottest (blackest) features in the scene are land surfaces; the coldest (whitest) features in the scene are clouds....