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Boundary layer wave clouds over Kansas

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with plots of pilot reports of turbulence and AIRMET boundaries [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed widespread boundary layer wave clouds across much of Kansas and far eastern Colorado on 02 May 2020. Although there was a temporary outage of pilot report data from 18-19 UTC, there was one pilot report of light turbulence over Hays, Kansas (KHYS) at an altitude of 6500 feet at 2041 UTC. An AIRMET for the potential of turbulence below 7000 feet had been issued at 14 UTC. There was a hint of some wave interference, which may have enhanced turbulence potential.

There was also a subtle signature of these waves seen in GOES-16 Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm) images (below).

GOES-16 Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm) images, with plots of pilot reports of turbulence and AIRMETs boundaries [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-16 Low-level Water Vapor (7.3 µm) images, with plots of pilot reports of turbulence and AIRMETs boundaries [click to play animation | MP4]

Categories: Aviation, GOES-16