This website works best with a newer web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer is not supported by this website.

Category: Aviation

Caughlin Wildfire near Reno, Nevada

The 2000-acre “Caughlin Fire” started burning around 08:45 UTC (1:45 am local time) in the hilly terrain near Reno, Nevada, and soon grew out of control due to strong winds gusting as high as 74 mph. McIDAS images of GOES-15 3.9 µm shortwave IR data (above) showed the “hot spot”... Read More

Mountain waves over Colorado and New Mexico

A comparison of 8-km resolution GOES-11 6.7 µm water vapor channel, 4-km resolution GOES-13 and GOES-15 6.5 µm water vapor channel, and 1-km resolution Aqua MODIS 6.7 µm water vapor channel images (above) demonstrated how differences in satellite viewing angle as well as differences in satellite sensor spatial resolution have... Read More

Detecting turbulence from Satellites

Clear Air Turbulence can be a significant aircraft hazard, occasionally causing injuries and long delays. (See, for example, here and here for two recent examples. The second example resulted in a 6-hour delay (Link))At the upper-tropospheric boundary between air masses, vertical shearing at the jet stream combined with the ageostrophic... Read More