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Severe turbulence over coastal South Carolina

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with plots of pilot reports and SIGMET boundaries [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with pilot reports of turbulence and SIGMET boundaries [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images (above) revealed the presence of elongated W-E oriented billow clouds, many of which exhibited small-scale ripples that were oriented N-S along the billow cloud tops, over coastal areas of South Carolina and North Carolina on 15 November 2019. An initial SIGMET (November 1) was issued covering airspace over Georgia and South Carolina — Severe Turbulence (plotted in red) was reported at 41,000 feet and at 35,000 feet. A second SIGMET (November 2) was later issued covering airspace over South Carolina and North Carolina.

The same GOES-16 Water Vapor images which include isotachs of RAP40 model maximum wind (at any level) are shown below — most of the Moderate to Severe turbulence reports were occurring within the speed gradient along the poleward (left) edge of a SW-NE oriented jet stream flowing parallel to the coast.

GOES-16 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with plots of pilot reports, SIGMET boundaries, and isotachs of RAP40 model maximum wind [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, with pilot reports of turbulence, SIGMET boundaries, and isotachs of RAP40 model maximum wind [click to play animation | MP4]

More detailed views of the billow-top ripples were provided by a Terra MODIS Visible image at 1600 UTC, and NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and Infrared images as visualized using RealEarth (below).

Terra MODIS Visible (0.65 µm) image, with plots of pilot reports and SIGMET boundaries [click to enlarge]

Terra MODIS Visible (0.65 µm) image, with pilot reports of turbulence and SIGMET boundaries [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color RGB and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images, with pilot reports of turbulence [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color RGB and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images, with pilot reports of turbulence [click to enlarge]

Categories: Aviation, GOES-16, MODIS, NOAA-20, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Terra, VIIRS