Daily Archives: March 31, 2015

Dissipation Time

CloudThickness_1115_31March2015

GOES-R Cloud Thickness over southern Georgia/northern Florida, 1115 UTC on 31 March 2015 (Click to enlarge)

If fog has formed via radiational cooling, the GOES-R Cloud Thickness product that is produced just before sunrise can be used to estimate when clouds will clear. Such an image is shown above for a case of dense fog over southern Georgia on 31 March 2015. The largest Cloud Thicknesses at this time were around 1150 feet over the southern part of this region. Based on this correlation curve, then, dissipation where the fog is thickest should occur 4-1/2 to 5 hours after 1115 UTC. The visible animation below suggests that dissipation was complete by 1715 UTC.

VIS_1630to1730_31March2015

Visible Imagery, 1630-1815 UTC on 31 March 2015 (Click to enlarge)