A small low pressure system was almost over SHEBA ship. It was located just north of the ship. Because of this low, the ship had a lot of broken cloud cover up to about 6 km. Rain was reported at 12 and 18 UT. It had ended before the ER-2 arrived. The satellite images and radar indicate breaks in the clouds were forming.
At Barrow a small high pressure system occupied the Alaskan coast centered east of Barrow. Barrow had some cirrus and low stratus but a large part of the coast was visible on the satellite image.
The trajectories to SHEBA ship show most of the air coming from the west and southwest. The surface to 1.5 km trajectories originate in Siberia. Higher levels, 3 and 6 km, come from the Bering Sea crossing eastern Siberia while the 9 km trajectory comes from the west in western Siberia.
The trajectories to Barrow came from Alaska's central valley in the low levels, surface to 1.5 km. Winds were light so the trajectories over 6 days do not extend past the Central Valley. The upper level air, 3-9 km, came from the North Pacific crossing western Alaska in route to Barrow.
