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Aeroflot 270 encounters severe turbulence approaching Thailand

By Scott Bachmeier •

Himawari-8 Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with plots of turbulence intensity along the flight path [click to enlarge]

Himawari-8 Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with plots of turbulence intensity along the flight path [click to enlarge]

Aeroflot Flight 270 encountered severe turbulence just off the coast of Myanmar (CNN | Aviation Herald) as it was flying toward its destination of Bangkok, Thailand on 01 May 2017. According to information from FlightRadar24 (flight map) and FlightAware (flight map | flight log) the time and location of the turbulence was around 23:54-23:56 UTC, near 16.4 N latitude, 97.4 East longitude, at the cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Himawari-8 Water Vapor (6.9m) images (above; courtesy of Sarah Griffin, CIMSS) indicated that the aircraft made a slight course correction to fly over or through a small cluster of rapidly-developing thunderstorms — this convection was the likely cause of the turbulence.

Closer views of Himawari-8 Visible (0.64 µm), Water Vapor (6.9 µm) and Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images, centered at the location of the turbulence encounter (below), showed the rapid development of individual convective elements within this cluster of thunderstorms. Cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were around -70º C on the 01 May / 00:10 UTC image.

Himawari-8 Visible (0.64 µm, top), Water Vapor (6.9 µm, middle) and Infrared Window (10.4 µm, bottom) images [click to enlarge]

Himawari-8 Visible (0.64 µm, top), Water Vapor (6.9 µm, middle) and Infrared Window (10.4 µm, bottom) images [click to enlarge]

Categories: Aviation, Himawari-8