weather site question for the experts

Irish Steve

Folks,

Was looking at this German weather site earlier, here which if I am reading it correctly, shows the track of air that's arrived at a specific point in Europe at various times. I was looking at London, in that's it's the most westerly point they cover.

Am I correct in my understanding that it's showing where the contributing air masses at different levels have been coming from in the preceding days? If I am right in that assumption, it's a very interesting chart option, and shows just how darn fast some of the jets are moving at the moment.

Thanks

tphase

You are correct, these trajectories indicate where there an airmass has been - in this case the site also supplies a forecast of the back-trajectory for the following day. Like a weather forecast, there are uncertainties and the further back in time you go, the greater they are.

There are lots of trajectory models about eg NAME, Flexpart, Flextra, HySPLIT.
You can get Flextra trajectories for numerous locations here. (Mace Head is the only Irish site on the list.). Or you can generate your own with HySPLIT.
Volcano watchers may be interested in this site.