A climatology of cloud lines associated with the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays

Clouds lines associated with the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays are often seen in Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imagery. An example of an AVHRR image containing such phenomena can be seen in the corresponding figure. Past research developed hypotheses concerning the mechanisms responsible for genesis of the cloud lines. One explanation is that they cloud lines are forced in the same manner as are Great Lakes shore-parallel cloud bands. Namely, they result from converging land-breeze circulations. An alternate, albeit more speculative, explanation is that at least some of the cloud lines in question are ship tracks. In order to help quantify these two hypotheses, an exhaustive climatological study of the cloud lines has been undertaken using AVHRR and National Data Buoy Center data. This paper presents the results this climatological study.