The most common gas is nitrogen

up to 60km the gas composition stays the same

the troposphere is closest to the earth, in it the temperature decreases up until the tropopause where it
becomes constant with altitude.

The troposphere is 8km over the poles, and 16km over the equator – this is controlled by the
temperature (cold = low) – however, the closer the tropopause is to the earth, the warmer level it is at,
this means that at the poles it is at the -50c mark, and at the equator it is at -80c.

the tropopause has 3 major breaks – 40, 55, 65 degree latitudes.

Low density in the upper atmosphere means strong winds, including jet streams and CAT

above the troposphere we have the stratosphere – it extends to 50km above the surface

the temperature structure depends on ozone quantity, when solar radiation splits oxygen into ozone
creating heat. - ozone is mostly 20-25km of height, temperature at this zone can reach up to +20
degrees despite being above the troposphere, a temperature inversion indeed.

The stratopause is located above this hot layer

above the stratopause we have the mesosphere which extends up to 90km of height, temps reaching as
low as -180c

the mesopause signifies the layer below the thermosphere, where the temperature rises up to 2,000
celcius at 200km

the ionosphere is located within the thermosphere, at 110, 160 and 250km levels, the kenelly heavyside
and appleton layers

after all this, comes the exosphere, which nobody gives a shit or a fuck about.

At -56.5 celcius we have the upper limit of ISA temperature change, after that ISA rules assume the
temperature stays constant up to 65,650'. - ICAO is not concerned with temperatures above this level.
In low pressure systems, isobars are often closer together – the pressure gradient force is greater, as are
the winds in these areas.

Between highs and lows we have COLS, they usually have calm weather conditions.

Isallobars are isobars which show areas of positive or negative trends of pressure change.

Temperature affects the pressure lapse rate, this is why pressure does not decrease linearly with altitude
– to calculate height change (27 feet in ISA) per hPa, use the following formula:

96∗Kelvin
Height change= where “Kelvin = temperature in celcius + 273”
QNH

Warm air causes higher pressure at high altitudes, and lower pressure near the ground.
Cold air causes lower pressure at high altitudes, and higher pressure near the ground.

QFF is QNH corrected for mean sea level using the formula above, it is not very useful for aviators, but
are used to plot isobaric charts.

Despite temperature dropping with altitude, density decreases with altitude, because the effect on
density of the pressure drop is greater than that of the temperature drop.

Density generally decreases as you get closer to the equator due to temperature – at the surface – this
effect is the opposite at altitude.

Density altitude is the height in ISA at which the current density would be found.

DA=PA+( ISA Deviation∗120)

Low pressure = 'Cyclone'

High pressure = 'Anticyclone'

Rising air cools and expands, this expansion is called adiabatic cooling – through this process, warm
ground lifts air and cools it past the dewpoint, creating cumulus clouds with showery precipitation.

Rising air which is causing the CB cloud interferes with falling air caused by precipitation, this causes
turbulence.

The updraft can also suspend supercooled droplets (0 to -15c) in cummuliform clouds.

In a small scale heat low, visibility is generally good, except when there is precipitation.

These depressions can become very large and create hurricanes/cyclones/typhoons.

Polar front depressions move from west to east

Jet streams around 40-60 latitudes create low pressure (same principle as a carburetor) and therefore
create low pressures on the ground. (think of a pa-28 window and how it sucks your hand out)

Coriolis deflects air to the right in the north hemisphere, left in the south hemisphere.

The freezing level suddenly drops when you cross a warm front into the cold zone ahead.

Freezing rain occurs when rain from the warm front falls into a subzero environment of the cold front
below.

The warm sector of a polar front is usually cloudy because of the fact that it has been dragged over
cooler ground, therefore causing its lower sectors to become saturated and cloudy through cooling past
the dewpoint.

The cold front has a much steeper slope, it wedges warm air up and causes it to adiabatically cool past
the dewpoint, forming layer type clouds.

However, the cold front has a 'nose' which reaches up to FL090 – this nose may undercut hot air which
then rises through it, causing CU/CB.

Precipitation of all kinds is found at a cold front, and thus strong turbulence due to the downdrafts
resulting from the precipitation.

Visibility is poor in areas of precipitation, but good in clean areas, this is due to the same reason as
warm front – winds clear pollutants out of the way

Behind the polar front depression is an air mass of polar cold air – when it moves towards warmer
latitudes it becomes unstable and forms CB.

Isobaric troughs contain a convergent zone which contains weather which is as active as the depression,
since winds converge along this line, updrafts may cause bad weather.
Trough = low pressure / Ridge = high pressure

Trough lines are represented by a solid black line, they usually contain active cumuliform clouds – they
are similar to isobaric troughs but are usually at altitude.

The convergence of the Hadley and Ferrel cells causes a downdraft of air – this creates the sub tropical
highs (20-45 latitude) (sub tropical oceanic high pressure belt)

The STOHPB moves to higher lat in summer, lower in winter – in the belts we have the azores high, as
well as all the major deserts on earth, due to the dryness of the air.
The descending air causes it to adiabatically warm, preventing to creation of any cloud and creating
good weather because there is little cloud, the surface is allowed to heat and cool without interference,
therefore, in the STOHPB during long winter nights, radiation fog may form.

Cold anticyclones can also form due to the cold surface cooling air and pulling it down, this happens in
America and Siberia – as well as over the poles, POLAR HIGHS, although the PH are weaker in
general.

Large amounts of warm air being drawn down by warm anticyclones causes a small temperature
inversion on the surface, trapping pollutants just like in Dubai.

HIGH PRESSURE ZONE AIR MOVEMENT

CLOCKWISE NORTHERN
ANTICLOCKWISE SOUTHERN

A Col is in the middle of two lows and two highs, widely spaced isobars mean that there is neither H
nor L pressure.

Winds in a col are very light and variable – in summer, col weather is TSRA, winter it is foggy.

QNH = QFF corrected into ISA atmosphere.

Cold air increases pressure lapse rate

Altimeters are calibrated using ISA conditions, therefore we only use QNH.
In colder than ISA, altimeters overread.

HI – LOW – HI = From high to low temp/pressure, altimeter reads high

If you adjust the Kollsman window to a higher value (ie. 1013 → 1020) the altimeter will show an
increase in altitude.

For every 1 degree Celsius of ISA deviation, the altimeter is in error of 4 feet per 1000 feet.
This can be done as: ((ISA deviation)x4)x altitude in thousands
Celsius + 273 = Kelvin

The greenhouse effect actually absorbs long wave terrestrial radiation

Convection is the movement created by surface heated air rising, often creating clouds.

The change of state from gas to liquid (ie condensation) releases latent heat, which warms the air
around the cloud.

A temperature inversion would happen on a cold calm night where the ground cools faster than the air
around it, thus the lower layer of air will be colder than that above.

A cloudy night is usually warmer than a clear one, as clouds act like a blanket

I skipped out a bunch of stuff regarding temperature because it's common sense, so make sure to check
that out just in case.

Latent heat = the heat which is transferred during a phase change of a substance.

Ie. when steam condenses to our skin, the latent heat of that phase change creates an even more severe
burn.

If there are no condensation nuclei, air can become supersaturated and have a humidity greater than
100%

Supercooled water droplets happen when there is no freezing nuclei, so the water droplet can remain
liquid at subzero temperatures – if you search “supercooled water” in youtube there are some cool vids.

An adiabatic process is one in which there is no heat transfer in or out of the system in question.

DALR = 3c/1000'
SALR = 2c/1000'
- the difference between these two is due to the release of latent heat during condensation.

Air is stable if it returns to its original level after being given upward momentum
Air is unstable if it continues moving upwards, likely due to being surrounded by colder air
If the ELR is higher than DALR and SALR, the atmosphere is absolutely unstable
If the ELR is lower than SALR, the air is absolutely stable

The icing in CB clouds is always severe

In an unstable situation, mixing of the air spreads pollutants around causing a relatively clear
atmosphere, meaning good visibility.

In a stable atmosphere, the rising air will cool faster than its surroundings, making it heavier, making it
sink back down. - Associate this with stratiform cloud and low turbulence, persistent and intense
precipitation.

Windshear is not rough air, it is like macro-turbulence. WS = variation that displaces the aircraft
abruptly from its flight path so that substantial and immediate control deflection is needed to maintain
heading and altitude.

Mechanical turbulence is that which is caused by physical obstruction over land, such as buildings –
the friction layer is thicker.

Thermal turbulence is caused by rising air, such as a dark field creating an updraft that interferes with
horizontally moving air. - A similar effect can be seen within clouds with vertical development

Clear air turbulence can be found on the side of a jetstream which is in contact with the colder front.

Mountain waves are oscillations in wind caused by previously stable airflow moving over a mountain,
the air over the mountain ridge must have absolute stability in order for it to fall back down to its
original position, thus causing the waves. Wind speed must also be 15+kt and increasing with altitude.

The winds must flow within 30 degrees each side of the perpendicular – when all these conditions are
met, these oscillations may become visible due to the fact that rising air cools and forms lenticular
clouds over the mountain or downwind from the mountain.
MTI – marked temperature inversion, this is a warning given if there is an inversion where the
temperature ends up being 10c higher at altitude than on the ground. - expect turbulence.

Moderate turbulence, IAS fluctuations of 15-25kt – any time where passengers feel strain against the
seatbelts.

Severe turbulence – IAS fluctuations more than 25kt, aircraft may be momentarily out of control.\

Veering – clockwise
Backing – anticlockwise

Wind is always referred to true north, but runways and headings are referred to magnetic north.

Airfield surface wind measurements are usually taken 10m above the ground.

Geostrophic wind is a conceptual model of wind parallel to isobars – only two balanced forces:

The pressure gradient force (PGF) which moves from HIGH to LOW pressure – we can judge the
strength of this force through the spacing of isobars (tight bars = strong) – PGF determines the strength
of the wind.

The geostrophic wind scale is found in charts – it can be used to calculate wind speed
through measuring the distance between isobars on a chart.

Secondly, the geostrophic wind is dependent on the Coriolis force – because of the
spherical nature of the earth, air moving from the pole to the equator will have to travel greater
distances over land the furthest you get to the spinning equator. - ie. a point at the equator will have to
travel 21,600NM to complete a full rotation, whereas one at 60 latitude will only travel 10,800NM

Within 15 latitude from the equator, we consider the CF to be nil. All winds in this zone are antitryptic
winds because there is no CF to balance out geostrophic factors.

CF deflection is dependent on wind speed, proportionally. It always acts at 90 degrees from wind dir.

The geostrophic wind blows parallel to straight isobars, this is not very possible in real life because
isobars are usually curved around pressure gradients, this introduces centrifugal force and means that
the wind can't be geostrphic (because there are more than two forces)

Buys Ballot's law – with wind to your back on the north hemisphere, the low pressure will be to your
left. The opposite is true for the southern hemisphere.

Geostrophic wind only happens above 2/3000 feet because below this, the surface friction counts as
another force

Geostrophic winds are stronger at lower latitudes, check the wind scale and how a 40kt isobar space at
lat70 is the same as a 60kt isobar space at lat40
Friction causes winds to back as they approach the ground in the northern hemisphere, veer in the
southern. This is due to the fact that friction acts opposite the geostrophic direction, this causes PGF to
become the dominant force since CF is dependent on windspeed, the PGF therefore causes the wind to
change direction.

Over land, winds are veering/backing 30 degrees and decreasing by 50% in speed at the SFC
Over a smooth surface, winds are veering/backing 10 degrees, decreasing in speed by 30% at SFC

During the day, the winds are fastest, gustiest around 1500h – at night there are no thermal currents and
therefore no mixing, so the surface winds remain slow due to a low friction layer approx. 0600h

Centrifugal force increases wind speed but keeps it in line with curved isobars – this is a “gradient
wind” - faster than the geostrophic wind.

A monsoon is a very large land or sea breeze that changes seasonally rather than diurnally. When the
monsoon is a sea breeze, it produces very large and constant vertical development.

Anabatic – hot air flowing up a valley creating clouds at either side

Katabatic – cold air collecting at the bottom of a valley, the pool may reach dewpoint and for valley fog

Foehn wind – stable air flows over a mountain and descends over the other side, on the way up it cools
at DALR until it forms cloud, at which point it cools at SALR. - Because the air is stable, it will
descend on the other side of the mountain and warm at SALR/DALR.

Notice that the air on the right side of the mountain is warmer because it lost moisture at precipitation.
Cloud amount is measured in Oktas, or eigths of the sky.

The greater the dew-point spread, the higher the cloud base, since the air has to cool past its dew point
with altitude at the DALR. Keep in mind that dew point also decreases with altitude, so the effect is
even greater.

(Temperature−Dewpoint) x 400=cloud base in feet.

A ceilometer is a laser that measures the height of a cloud layer. Cloud layer height can be measured at
night using a light beam and a bit of trigonometry.

A “ceiling” is one of 5 Oktas or more.

Cloud “tops” can be observed by aircraft, but are mostly through radiosondes – this graph explains it
better than any words ever could: (the picture on the right shows how multi-layer cloud forms)

Cloud forms when the air goes from DALR to SALR, usually happens when it crosses the dew point.

There are other ways of lifting air other than surface heating, convergence for example, happens when
air accumulates in a certain area such as a peninsula which is surrounded by sea breezes.

Air can also rise due to frontal uplift, such as ahead of a cold front.

Layered cloud can form over high ground such as the upwind side of a mountain, ie. Foehn wind.
In a more stable and dry atmosphere, lenticular clouds may form instead.
In unstable conditions, high ground will help to form larger convective clouds, such as CB forming
next to mountains.

Icing and turbulence in orographic cloud (mountain cloud) because of the increased vertical support,
droplets can more easily become suspended in NS, CB, CU clouds which are next to mountains.
The Bergeron process is complex, it involves water vapor being sublimated straight into ice crystals,
which drop towards the ground, growing by accretion of other water droplets that freeze on contact.
When they start to melt they may become “sticky” and link up with even more crystals, forming snow.

The Bergeron theory has weaknesses, such as when the cloud temperature is positive, in this case other
growth means such as coalescence become more important.

Dynamic precipitation:

Thunderstorms occur when the ELR is greater than SALR extending above the freezing level, the air
contains sufficient water vapor to form and maintain the cloud, and a trigger action is present to create
uplift of air.

Trigger actions – convection, orographic uplift, convergence, and frontal uplift.

TS ahead of cold fronts are often occluded, making them dangerous.

TS have an initial stage, a mature stage, and a dissipating stage.

Rising and falling water droplets cause the top of the CB to become positively charged, the bottom
negatively charge, this triggers lightning within the cloud. It also means that the ground is positively
charged under the storm, which creates lightning below the cloud too.

Sometimes, because of windshear, the downdrafts of a TS cell are limited to one ‘side’ of the cloud –
this means that there is a feedback mechanism of continuously uninterrupted downdrafts on the non-
precipitation side of the cloud, which gives it a longer life span.

The downflow can often collide with some surface winds or in-flow, producing uplift through
convergence and therefore a ‘daughter’ cell next to the big CB.

Because of pressure differentials in and around a CB, pressure instruments may lag or give false
readings.

Between 0 and -45c icing can occur in CB, between -3 and -10 the icing risk is much higher. Carb ice
can occur between -10 and +30c.

Hail can be found within a CB as well as directly below the anvil top.

Lightning happens + or – 5000’ from the freezing level.

Micro or macrobursts happen below the CB, can often include precip and hail at wind speeds up to
-6000fpm – a telltale sign of microburs are precipitation points which never reach the ground due to
undercutting wind.

If the updrafts are sufficient to suspend water, it may cause engine flame out of jet engines due to
‘drowning the engine’

Temperature inversions restrict the vertical movement of air, combined with light winds we get poor
visibility due to trapped pollutants below the inversion, it acts like a lid.

Haze or smoke are caused by solid particulates.

Dust and sand storms are present around the strong desert winds like the Haboob and Khamsin.

Smoke is a particularly good hygroscopic nuclei, so fog will often form where there is smoke.

• Radiation fog is caused by the loss of heat from the earth surface at night, cooling the air above
it below the dew point. Requires clear sky, high RH and light winds 2-8kt. If the wind was
calm, dew would deposit rather than creating fog due to no mixing of the air. Often found in
COL due to light winds as well as in valleys, especially those with water in the middle. A few
hundred feet thick (100m) but can reach 400m – insolation usually thins this fog through
warming the ground and stirring the fog away. Usually clears by 11am in the UK. Increasing
wind can mix the atmosphere and lift this type of fog into low stratus cloud. If clouds form
above the fog layer, the loss of radiation is inhibited. Radiation fog may also be cleared if dry
air enters the area where fog is present.
• Hill fog forms when low fog covers an area of high ground, is a major hazard to low craft due
to obscuration of mountains.
 • Advection fog forms when warm air moves over to a colder underlying surface, can be a
hundred or so feet in depth. Wind needs to be 15kt to move the air, RH needs to be high, and
cold underlying surface below DP of the above air.
• Frontal fog happens in front of warm fronts, the precipitation drags warm air from the front
down into the cooler air below, this fog belt can extend as far as 200 miles ahead of the front.
• Steam or arctic fog is quite rare, it happens when cold air blows off shore into a warm moist sea
surface, the small evaporation from the sea surface causes the cold air to saturate. If the air is
stable this fog type can reach 500’ - usually clears when another air mass comes over or when
wind increases.

RVR is reported in meters – below 50m reported as RBLW050/M0050

RVR above 1500m – P1500
RVR changing: U- Increasing, D- Decreasing, N- No change, B- Great variations

I skipped most of the visibility lesson since it is common sense, got the important parts though…

Rime ice forms by small supercooled water drops, they freeze instantly meaning that air is trapped in
the ice, looks like freezer ice

Clear ice forms slowly because large droplets take some time to freeze, giving time for any air to leave
the droplet. Clear ice may also flow down the wing due to not freezing straight away.

Mixed ice happens when both conditions are present.

Rain ice is most hazardous, happens when rain droplets fall through an area where they become
supercooled, usually the bottom of a temperature inversion start level. Can occasionally be found ahead
of a warm front due to to the sudden change in freezing level as the aircraft enters the cold side of the
front.

Hoar frost can happen when clear of clouds, happens in rapid altitude changes when the aircraft skin is
below 0, so the aircraft becomes a sublimation nuclei.

Climbing to a level where icing is less is a viable option, however it is always best, although it is also
dangerous, to descend below the freezing level.
The higher the cloud base temperature, the more droplets will be inside it, meaning that large SC
droplets will happen more often, the greater the icing risk. This can be seen often in topic latitudes.

High ground can lower the freezing level, especially when there is snow cover, aircraft overflying
mountains may encounter a decrease in freezing level and encounter icing where there was no icing
before, despite not changing altitude. - icing risk can be severe due to orographic lift in clouds.

Ice accumulates more easily over a thin wing, a thick wing splits the air further away from the leading
edge, creating a protective ‘foil’ of air ahead and above the wing which tends to keep SCWD away.

An air mass is defined as a body of air where horizontal profiles of humidity and temperatures are
more-or-less constant. They develop from source regions, usually in anticyclones where winds are
somewhat calm, such as sub-tropical and polar highs.

If an air mass moves over a warmer surface, it will become warmer in lower layers and therefore
unstable, the relative humidity will also fall.

If air is cooled from below, it becomes more stable and the relative humidity will increase.

Air masses affecting the UK:

• A is extremely unstable and approaches from the north, causing cold snow showers.
• PM approaches from NW, source region is north Atlantic. It is unstable because it moves over
warmer waters before reaching the UK, because of moisture, CU and CB are to be expected.
• RPM (returning polar maritime) is PM air which makes a U-turn after going south, and flows
back over the UK from the SW. As it moves south it becomes unstable with CU/CB.
• TM comes from the mid-atlantic ie. the Azores, it is quite stable and forms low cloud as the
warm air moves over colder water. In summer there is enough insolation to lift and break the
cloud into shallow CU, sometimes convection is strong enough for CB.
• TC approaches from SE, is dry and cloudless with warm good weather.
• PC approaches from the E, Siberia and northern Russia, it has little moisture due to being
continental but brings cloudless and extremely cold weather. May bring snow if its track passes
over the north sea.
Where a front reaches the ground, it is marked on a weather chart. Climatologically, we have the Polar
Front, Arctic Front, and Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) there is a minor front which
occurs in winter which is called the Mediterranean front.

The front line on a chart signifies the area where the front touches the ground, so keep in mind that the
adverse weather may actually be ahead of this line.

As the ripple forms in the polar front, warm air overrides cool air and causes surface pressure to fall.
The lower pressure helps to spin the air which draws cold air down and warm air up, further lowering
the pressure:

After the passage of the warm sector (at the cold front) the wind will veer as much as 70-80 degrees,
but usually only ~35 degrees.

The speed of a warm front can be calculated using the geostrophic wind scale, multiplying the answer
by two thirds.

Most of the weather occurs AT the cold front, instead of ahead of it as in a warm front. Cold fronts can
be anabatic or katabatic. Kata cold fronts are associated with descending air and is therefore less
severe.

The speed of a cold front can be estimated in the same way as a warm front, except without the part
where you multiply the value by 2/3. - Because cold fronts move faster, they often catch up with a
warm front and cause an occluded front.

A warm occlusion happens when air ahead of the occlusion is colder than that behind it they are more
common:

A cold occlusion is the opposite (right picture)

A polar front depression has a lifespan of around 14 days, moves parallel to the isobars within the
warm sector.
 AHEAD OF A WARM FRONT
SURFACE WIND Speed increasing, slight backing
TEMPERATURE Steady low
DEW POINT Steady low
PRESSURE Steady fall
CLOUD Increasing to OVC, Ci/Cs/As/Ns. Lowering.
PRECIPITATION Lght continuous from As, moderate cont. from Ns
VISIBILITY Reducing to poor

AT THE WARM FRONT

SURFACE WIND Sharp veer
TEMPERATURE Generally rise
DEW POINT Sudden rise
PRESSURE Decrease slight
CLOUD OVC, low base NS ST
PRECIPITATION Mod/Hvy continuous
VISIBILITY Very poor, may be foggy.

IN THE WARM SECTOR

SURFACE WIND Steady, usually SW
TEMPERATURE Steady
DEW POINT Steady
PRESSURE Slight decrease
CLOUD 6-8 Okta, large breaks, low base ST, SC
PRECIPITATION Dry or light rain/drizzle
VISIBILITY Poor

AT THE COLD FRONT

SURFACE WIND Sharp veer and gusts squalls
TEMPERATURE Sudden fall
DEW POINT Sudden fall
PRESSURE Start to rise
CLOUD All types possible
PRECIPITATION Heavy rain or snow, hail possible
VISIBILITY Poor in precipitation, quick improvement to good
 BEHIND COLD FRONT
SURFACE WIND Steady w slight veer to NW
TEMPERATURE Steady low
DEW POINT Steady low
PRESSURE Slow rise
CLOUD 4-6 Okta, CU/CB develop
PRECIPITATION Showers, heavy at times, hail and TS possible
VISIBILITY Very good except in showers

Orographic lows are formed on the lee side of mountains. They have strong unpredictable winds.
Rarely form when the air is unstable.

Thermal lows are formed by ascending warm air, associated with convective weather at times.

A polar low may develop when arctic air masses move towards the equator over warmer seas, they
warm through conduction and become unstable, forming a low similar to a thermal one. - ie. the coast
of Norway.

Over the large continents in summer, we find huge thermal lows which dominate the weather in that
area, ie. the Asian Monsoon low which forms in summer over the Tibetan Plateau.

Another large scale factor is the ITCZ, as we saw before, it is effectively a line of convective weather
which marks the thermal equator.

TRS (tropical revolving storms) can have a diameter between 300-1500km and life spans of weeks,
surface winds in excess of 65kt.

Atlantic and east pacific = Hurricanes

Indian ocean = Cyclones
Western north pacific = Typhoons

TRS develop in Cu, Cb areas in the eastern side of coasts, they form in easterly waves or ITCZ. These
cloud clusters pump warm moist air from the bottom to the top of the troposphere, on the way up it
spirals and becomes a storm (most die away before becoming a real TRS)
If a TRS moves to an area with no heat or moisture, such as cold seas or a continent, it has no source of
energy and quickly dies out.

Stage one – the tropical depression – first signs of rotation and a low central pressure with at least one
inclosed isobar. Wind 20-34kt

Stage two – tropical storm, surface winds of 34-64kt, the storm is then given a name in alphabetical
order alternating between male and female names.

Stage three – typhoon/hurricane/cyclone stage, fully matured with winds above 64kt

The eye of the storm is 20-50km, when it tightens, the storm is intensifying with extremely low
pressure.

Maximum winds are found at the eye wall.

Tornado winds can reach up to 200kt, they are not represented on weather charts as they move quickly
and have a short life span, there are strong updraft in the middle and they are a low pressure system.

The Coriolis effect is what splits air circulation into its respective cells. The cell model is simplified
and idealized because we are pilots, not meteorologists. Keep in mind that the line between the Hadley
cells moves a lot, it is usually marked by the ITCZ.

At the polar front we have another area of low pressure, they are called the polar front depressions.

Air from the sub-tropical highs moves towards the ITCZ, these are deflected by the Coriolis force, they
are the NE and SE trade winds. They flow FROM the east TO the west, and are stronger over the
wind. Where they converge we have light and variable areas called the dulldrums.
The ITCZ moves north from December → June, and south between June → December.

The Azores high in summer can sometimes penetrate the UK isles, this birings warm clear weather for
a brief amount of time.

The easterly waves are convective weather pulses which flow westward with the easterly upper airflow
off the west African coast into the north Atlantic, these are the same convective clusters which may turn
into TRS. - These can also be observed just north of the equator and flowing westward from the south-
american coast.

Westerly waves are the polar front depressions which move across the earth from west to east between
40-60 lats.
Africa in December (winter in north hemi) During this time, the ITCZ should be in the southern
hemisphere, however, over the Atlantic due to very cold antarctic sea currents, the ITCZ is prevented
from moving south of the equator, this prevents TRS from forming in the southern Atlantic. During this
time, the ITCZ is south of the equator in the east coast of Africa, so countries like Madagascar are
plagued by TRS from the Indian ocean.

Africa in June – The ITCZ is well into the northern hemisphere, where it is near the coast very active
conv. weather can be expected, however, in land it is deprived of weather and therefore has very few
cloud formations. The Azores high grows massively giving warm cloudless weather to western Europe.
The majority of Southern Africa is also under the influence of a high, bringing cloudless dry weather
associated with grass fires. SE trades cross the equator and causes them to change deflection to become
SW monsoons (green arrows) during this deflection it gathers moisture and heat, becoming very
unstable and creating active weathers such as month long torrential rains. Convergence in the ITCZ
even causes tornadoes in the western coast of Africa, known as the easterly wave.
Southern Asia in December winter – ITCZ in the southern hemisphere causing convective weather in
the Indian ocean. The Siberian high dominates over Asia causing air to flow southbound towards the
ITCZ, the NE Monsoon is its name. This wind warms on its way to the equator, creating convective
weather , it deflects when crossing the equator to become the NW monsoon.

Southern Asia in June summer – The ITCZ is way north, the landmass is warm and a large scale
LOW is present where the Siberian high was before. It draws air over the equator which deflects,
warms from below and picks up moisture to help create severe convective weather, causing the horrible
rains we see in Bangladesh and India.
In December, the ITCZ just touches the north of Australia, it creates convective weather and the
Willy Willy’s which are TRS. At this time, the southern polar front depressions are also touching
Australia at the south, and the low pressure causes some winds as named in the picture.

In Australian June the sub-tropical highs dominate and give dry dusty airs to Australia. The polar
depressions are still present giving cloud and precipitation to the south.

In South American December the polar front depressions control most of the weather in the south,
and through a dip of the ITCZ.
Interference can also be caused by the sun or other transmitter as shown by the red cone below:

Wildlife such as birds can also cause returns, as can insect swarms.

Radar composites are common, each has a range of 100-150km – these are often in a “movie loop” so
we can visually detect trends and movement.

Atmospherics can be used to detect areas of lightning. ATD measures the difference in reception time
of radio waves emitted by lightning, using three or more receivers to triangulate the position of a
lightning strike (all stations are synced using atomic clock)

Geostationary orbits are those which orbit around 36,000KM above the equator, and remain a fixed
position over the earth, having a field of view that covers 1/3 of the earth’s surface.

Polar orbit satellites orbit around the poles, and are sun-synchronous, meaning that they cross the
equator at the same time every day. Their field of view is less but the resolution is higher. They only
pass over the same spot once every 12 hours and are therefore useless in tracking cloud features. Orbits
are 600-1,000km.

Visible imaging from satellites measures the albedo of ground, this has interferences such as snowy
areas or fog. Satellites can also use infrared imagery to pick up the coldness of the underlying surface,
does not require the sun to be shining upon the surface. IR can even pick up frontal systems.
Water vapor satellite imaging uses wavelengths that water vapor absorbs greatly, it gives a very clear
view of humidity zones. You can identify the polar front jet quite easily.

METAR – meteorological aerodrome report, issued every half hour.

Snowtam at the end of a METAR:

9 Hour TAFS are issued every 3 hours
12-30 Hour TAFS are issured every 6 hours

LLSIGWX charts are valid for 9 hours