Satellite Image of the Day: June 18, 2007
(click here for previous images of the day from RUSMART)

NOAA's Hydrometeorologial Prediction Center (HPC) "Daily National Forecast" image shows a daily national weather prediction

NOAA's National Hurricane Center

Satellites: NOAA-15, NOAA 16, NOAA 17 and NOAA-18, part of NOAA's 850km-high (530 mile-high) Polar Orbiting satellites

The Gulf Stream "bounces" off the NC coast

The fortuitous angle of the sun (directly overhead NOAA-18) nicely illuminates the path of the Gulf Stream.
The Gulf Stream is a flow of water warmed in the Caribbean Sea, making its way around Florida and then turning northward.
Its complicated flow path is driven by the Atlantic part of the global thermohaline circulation, a.k.a. the "conveyor belt."
Much of the morphology of North Carolina's Outer Banks is determined by their role in deflecting this circulation from its original northwest direction to its new direction to the northeast.

Click on the image for a high-resolution version (~290k).