Weather satellites have been producing stunning images of the powerful bomb cyclone as it barrels across the northeast US.
The new GOES-16 satellite (Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellite), operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, has been capturing hypnotic, swirling shapes.
Stormy, yet zen-like
The swirling imagery is a result of the explosive cyclogenesis, also known as
bombogenesis or a “bomb cyclone,” caused by a mass of cold air colliding with a warm one, resulting in a rapid drop in atmospheric pressure. When the pressure plummets, air rushes to fill the spaces between the
two masses, creating intense wind and strengthening the storm. As the
air moves, the rotation of the earth creates a cyclonic effect that
moves counterclockwise (clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere), causing
winds to blow from the northeast—thus, a nor’easter: The circulating winds cause the spiral shape to form as the masses of
air circle around each other. GOES-16’s Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI)
uses a camera sensitive to different wavelengths, resulting in images of
storm formation that show the yin of the cold interacting with the yang
of the warm:
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