NASA Terra Captures 2-Hour Valley Fog and Arch Cloud Over Victoria

1 articles · Updated · Science@NASA · May 12

Terra imaged morning fog filling valleys across eastern Victoria’s alpine parks in May, while also catching an arch-shaped cloud over Port Phillip Bay at 8:19 a.m. local time.
About 2 hours of lingering fog showed up in geostationary imagery because autumn’s longer nights cooled air toward the dew point, and denser cold air drained into shaded mountain valleys.
A cold, wet spell days earlier moistened the landscape, then a slow-moving high brought the clear, calm conditions that favor radiation fog; rivers and lakes including Lake Dartmouth further fed water vapor.
The bay cloud stretched roughly from St. Leonards to Mount Eliza and likely formed as converging land and sea breezes interacted with Port Phillip Bay’s horseshoe-shaped terrain.
As the northeastern valley fog faded, the arch cloud moved south across the bay, highlighting how the same regional weather setup produced two distinct low-level cloud features.

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