Air Algerie Plane Crash in Mali
Meteosat-10 10.8 µm infrared channel images (click to enlarge)
An Air Algerie Flight AH5017 crashed less than an hour after taking off from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (the southern asterisk in the animation above). Contact was lost at 0155 UTC (Press Report) and wreckage was found southeast of the Gossi, Mali (the northern asterisk in the animation above). Cloud-top IR Brightness Temperatures in the Mesoscale Convective System through which the plane flew were as cold as -78º C.
Suomi NPP was flying over Mali and Burkina Faso at 0152 UTC on 24 July and provided high-resolution infrared and Day/Night Band imagery along the flight path. The toggle below, of the VIIRS 11.45 µm infrared and 0.70 µm Day/Night Band (Imagery courtesy of William Straka, UW CIMSS) shows the convective storm. The bright lights of Ouagadougou are evident, as well as lightning streaks within the storm. (Click for zoomed-in versions of 11.45 µm and Day Night Band images)
Suomi NPP VIIRS 11.45 µm infrared and 0.7 µm Day/Night Band images (click to enlarge)
============================= Added 28 July 2014 =========================
Suomi NPP VIIRS 0.7 µm Day/Night Band image (click to enlarge)
The image above includes the light flare from the actual plane crash, circled in red. Suomi NPP was passing over the crash site between 1:55:00 and 1:55:30 UTC on 24 July 2014 (Link, navigation computed from Two Line Element files). The animation below shows Day/Night Band imagery (also courtesy of William Straka, UW CIMSS) from before the crash (21 July), the time of the crash on the 24th, and after the crash (25 July).
Suomi NPP VIIRS 0.7 µm Day/Night Band imagery on three days in July (click to Animate)