Jet Streams

Identifying the Jet

This case from 4 March 2016 lets you practice identifying jet streams in satellite imagery. Visible, infrared, and water vapour imagery and the airmass RGB are particularly useful for this kind of synoptic-scale system. View the imagery, then answer the question below.

Question

Which areas show the presence of a jet stream on 4 March at 12 UTC?

The correct answers are A, C, and D.

Area A in the north is located within a mid-latitude depression and a northerly polar jet stream.

Area C has an elongated dark stripe in the WV channel and an elongated red stripe in the airmass RGB. This is typical of jet streams.

In the IR and airmass RGB, area D has a subtropical jet stream with a long cirrus band on the equator side of the jet stream axis.

Area B is in the center of an upper-level vortex and is not connected to a jet stream.

Please make a selection.