Ramblings of a Graduate Student

Air traffic has come to a screeching halt across northern Europe this weekend as Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland continues to erupt, after laying dormant for the last 190 years.  Ash is being lofted several tens of thousands of feet into the atmosphere.  (It is the brownish color streaming southeast from the upper-left (northwest) portion of the image above.)  Unlike ash from burnt vegetation, which is soft and fluffy, volcanic ash consists of tiny jagged rocks that can damage an aircraft’s engine resulting in engine failure.

The tropospheric jet-stream is resulting in the volcanic ash being advected over much of Europe.  It appears that this weather pattern will persist for several more days, which spells bad news for international and European air travel.

A very active weather pattern continues across the contiguous United States this evening.  There are no less than five upper-level lows, two jet streams (Polar and Subtropical), two very well defined warm conveyor belts, and much, much more!

Today’s post is a little bit different than previous posts.  Instead of me discussing a map, I’m giving you a chance to test your own skills.  Take a minute to try and identify all of these things on your own and then click below for the answer.  Good luck!

For those who would like some help, here is an animation of the 24 hours leading up to the image above: 10 February 2010 Water Vapor Loop.

Answer Key

Edit: After being contacted and asked if there were more than the 5 upper-lows / vorticity maximums / shortwave troughs that I have annotated, I have uploaded a new answer key marking the two most commonly identified upper-lows / vorticity maximums / shortwave troughs that I did not have marked in my initial answer key.  There could easily be more (such as associated within the warm air advection occurring off the west coast), but I’ve now identified 7 more obvious ones.