{"id":22884,"date":"2016-12-27T17:00:56","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=22884"},"modified":"2017-01-06T18:02:29","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T18:02:29","slug":"turbulence-over-the-central-pacific-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/22884","title":{"rendered":"Turbulence over the central Pacific Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Himawari-8<\/a>

Himawari-8 Water Vapor Imagery (6.2 \u00b5m, top; 6.9 \u00b5m, middle; 7.3 \u00b5m, bottom), 1700-1900 UTC on 27 December 2016 [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n

Turbulence over the Pacific Ocean affected at least one flight on Tuesday 27 December 2016 near 24\u00ba N, 162\u00ba E, as indicated by a pilot report issued at 1745 UTC:<\/p>\n

PGUA UUA \/OV 24N 162E\/TM 1745\/FL340\/TP B777\/TB MOD-SEV\/RM ZOA<\/p>\n

In the animation above of the three Himawari-8 Water Vapor bands (sensing radiation emitted at 6.2 \u00b5m, 6.9 \u00b5m and 7.3 \u00b5m), a characteristic banded gravity wave structure is evident which is associated with the pilot report of moderate to severe turbulence (Note: the ABI instrument<\/a> on the GOES-R<\/a> series of satellites will feature these same 3 upper level<\/a>, mid-level<\/a> and lower level<\/a> water vapor bands). In contrast to a turbulence event earlier this month, documented here<\/a> on this blog, the wave features responsible for this turbulence were more distinct in 8-bit McIDAS-X imagery, and were also apparent in all three water vapor bands.<\/p>\n

The Himawari-8 satellite data were used in the subsequent issuance of a SIGMET (Significant Meteorological Information) advisory:<\/p>\n

WSPA06 PHFO 271824
\nSIGPAS<\/p>\n

KZAK SIGMET SIERRA 1 VALID 271825\/272225 PHFO-
\nOAKLAND OCEANIC FIR MOD OCNL SEV TURB FCST BTN FL280 AND FL360.
\nWI N2640 E16810 – N2120 E16810 – N2120 E16240 – N2640 E16250
\n– N2640 E16810. MOV E 25KT. BASED ON ACFT AND SAT.<\/p>\n

The full 11-bit McIDAS-V imagery from the 6.2 \u00b5m Water Vapor band on Himawari-8, below, shows multiple ephemeral signatures of potential turbulence. In contrast to the event on 14 December<\/a>, the gravity waves in this event perturbed clouds enough that they were also apparent in the Infrared Window band, as shown in this toggle<\/a> between the 10.4 \u00b5m and 6.2 \u00b5m images. Himawari-8 Infrared Window<\/a> brightness temperatures exhibited by the gravity wave were in the -30\u00ba to -40\u00baC range at 1740 UTC<\/a>, which roughly corresponded to altitudes of 30,000-34,000 feet according to data from the 12 UTC rawinsonde report from Minamitorishima RJAM (IR image<\/a> | text<\/a>) located about 890 km or 550 miles to the west of the wave feature. Additional Himawari-8 Water Vapor images created using AWIPS II are here<\/a> for the 6.2 \u00b5m imagery (from 1720-1740 UTC); this<\/a> is a toggle between 6.2 \u00b5m and 7.3 \u00b5m imagery at 1720 UTC.<\/p>\n

\"Himawari-8<\/a>

Himawari-8 Water Vapor (6.2 \u00b5m) Imagery, 1600-1900 UTC on 27 December 2016 [click to animate]<\/p><\/div>The superior spatial resolution of Himawari-8 (2-km at the sub-satellite point) was vital in detecting the gravity wave features causing the turbulence. Water Vapor imagery from COMS-1, with a nominal resolution of 4 km, does not show the features associated with the turbulence report.<\/p>\n

\"COMS-1<\/a>

COMS-1 Water Vapor (6.75 \u00b5m) Imagery, 1630-1800 UTC on 27 December 2016 [click to animate]<\/p><\/div>Similarly, HimawariCast data that is broadcast at reduced resolution was insufficient to monitor this event. See the toggle below from 1740 UTC.<\/p>\n

\"Himawari-8<\/a>

Himawari-8 Water Vapor (6.2 \u00b5m) Imagery at 1740 UTC on 27 December 2016, at native resolution and as distributed via Himawaricast [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turbulence over the Pacific Ocean affected at least one flight on Tuesday 27 December 2016 near 24\u00ba N, 162\u00ba E, as indicated by a pilot report issued at 1745 UTC: PGUA UUA \/OV 24N 162E\/TM 1745\/FL340\/TP B777\/TB MOD-SEV\/RM ZOA In the animation above of the three Himawari-8 Water Vapor bands (sensing radiation emitted at 6.2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":22900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,57,34,62,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation","category-coms","category-goes-r","category-himawari-8","category-mcidas-v"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22884"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22943,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22884\/revisions\/22943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}