"sutartsorric" wrote in message
...

One question that puzzles me, and concerns the contrast on the IR
frames. North Africa looks very dark (due to the high temperatures
there), but the cloud contrast does not seem to show the thick cloud
associated with ex-Bill as particularly white. Could this be my
laptop, or are the cloud tops relatively warm? Or is it just that the
really bright white shade is reserved for the added coastlines?

I would hazard a guess it's largely down to the way the image is being
processed. Other sources, e.g.
http://wind.met.fu-berlin.de/cgi-bin...laymode=Endlos
perhaps offer better contrast and show some fairly vigorous ascent on the
forward side of the system.

VT 18Z WAFC data puts the tops at 26000FT
http://www.lfv.se/Tor/wc18/swc_18.asp
about 10000FT less than the CB over the continent in terms of a comparison.

Jon.