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Old 27th Apr 2010, 15:38
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Wxgeek
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The High Level SIGWX Charts located on the NOAA website give a good indication of where the turbulence will be. Unfortunately their coverage of South Asia isn't great.

For upper air turbulence on the NOAA charts look for red fluffy symbols with a note like "ISOL EMBD CB 500 XXX" which means "isolated embedded cumulonimbus tops to 50,000 - (bases below 20,000)". Flying a wide berth around CBs is always recommended.

The other thing to look for is turbulence in the vicinity of jetstreams (green lines) - look at the yellow dashed areas...then look for the note something like "420/320" pointing to the area. That means turbulence between 42,000 and 32,000. Now look at the small upward pointing arrow above the note. 1 arrow = moderate turbulence...2 arrows = severe turbulence. Don't worry the plane will handle both kinds but the ride will be noticeable and uncomfortable. Chances of injury from being tossed about inside the fuselage increase with severity so best to avoid turbulence in possible.

Last, look at the white boxed number that contains a 3 digit number... that is the level of the tropopause. It's best to fly above or below the trop to avoid the shear there. If you fly right at the trop you'll likely get a persistent bad ride, light to moderate turbulence.

Have fun with the charts.

NOAA high level sigwx charts