Terminology
- Overrunning: condition existing when an air mass is in motion aloft above another air mass of greater density at the surface. This process that results in expansional cooling, subsequent condensation and formation of cloud. Example: warm air ascending the surface of a warm front.
- Altimeter Setting: station level pressure reduced to MSL assuming ISA conditions
- Land breeze: blow from land to water during the night
- Stationary front: a frontal zone separating two different air masses, neither of which is strong enough to replace the other
- Riming: the growth of a descending ice particle as it collides with nearby water droplets which then freeze onto the particle
- in unstable air: lower levels of cloud where temperatures are only a few degrees below freezing
- in stable air: amount of supercooled water increases with height when temperatures are not far below freezing
Microbusts:
- The shaft of a microburst is normally about 2.2 nm wide or less at the surface.
- Downdrafts associated with a microbust could be as strong as 6000 ft / min
Mountain Waves:
- Rotor clouds are normally centred beneath the standing lenticular cloud (i.e. below each wave crest)
- The most powerful rotor is located under the first wave crest
Upper-Air Contour Charts:
- The wind blows along the contours in the same way that the 2000 ft wind blows along the surface isobars (parallel to the height contours, with lower heights on the left)
- the closer the contours, the stronger the wind; and if the height contours are curved, then centrifugal force acts on the wind
And other random facts:
- Snow grains: imply that freezing drizzle is present aloft.
- The vertical extent of CAT associated with a jet stream will be greatest on the low pressure, cold air mass side of the jet stream core.
I'll plan to cover some of these topics in more detail soon! It's a good thing I like Meteorology... hopefully I'll still be this enthusiastic when I come back to Radio Nav :)
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