Meteorology for pilots
How the atmosphere works and what it does to a flight: pressure, temperature and humidity, clouds and fronts, thunderstorms, icing, turbulence and windshear, and the reports and forecasts pilots read, METAR, TAF and the charts. The articles follow EASA ATPL subject 050 and the weather topics of the FAA knowledge tests.
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Air Masses and Fronts
How air masses are classified and modified, the fronts that form where they meet, the life cycle of the frontal depression and the weather as each front passes.
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Airframe Icing
How supercooled water and freezing precipitation form ice on aircraft, the types and intensities of icing, frost, SLD and ice-crystal icing, and the products that forecast it.
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Atmospheric Pressure
What atmospheric pressure is, how it is measured and expressed, how it changes with height and time, and how it is plotted with isobars.
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Atmospheric Stability
Adiabatic cooling and warming, lapse rates, stable, unstable and conditionally unstable air, and how soundings are used to forecast convection and cloud base.
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Cloud Cover and Ceiling
How cloud amount and height are measured and reported, the definitions of cloud base and ceiling, and the special codes CAVOK, NSC, NCD, SKC and vertical visibility.
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Cloud Formation and Types
How lifting and cooling form cloud, how clouds are classified by height and shape, and what each cloud type means for the pilot.
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Fog
The types of fog, the conditions that form and clear each one, and their impact on aerodrome operations.
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Global Circulation and Climate
The three-cell model of the general circulation, the global wind and pressure belts, the ITCZ, monsoons and the world's climatic zones.
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Ground Weather Radar and Satellite Imagery
How ground weather radar and weather satellites observe the atmosphere, how to read reflectivity and storm signatures, and what visible, infrared and false-color images show.
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Humidity and Water Vapor
How much water vapor the air holds, how humidity is expressed and measured, and the changes of state and latent heat that drive cloud and fog.
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Jet Streams
The narrow bands of very strong upper wind, why they form, where the main jets lie, how they appear on charts and what they mean for turbulence and flight planning.
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Local Winds
Winds driven by local heating and terrain, from sea breezes and katabatic flows to the föhn and the named regional winds pilots are examined on.
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METAR and SPECI
The routine and special aerodrome weather reports, their format, present and recent weather codes, runway state, remarks and automated observations.
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Meteorological Services and Briefings
Who produces aviation weather and how it reaches the pilot: ICAO Annex 3, the World Area Forecast System, national agencies, forecast models, briefings and pilot reports.
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Mist, Haze and Obscurations
Visibility-reducing phenomena other than fog, such as mist, haze, dust and sand, blowing snow, flat light and obscured high ground.
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Mountain Waves
Standing waves and rotors that form downwind of high ground, the clouds that mark them and how to cross mountains safely.
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Precipitation
How precipitation forms by the ice-crystal and coalescence processes, its types and intensities, and which clouds produce which precipitation.
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Pressure Systems
Depressions, anticyclones, troughs, ridges and cols: how they form, how they develop and the weather each brings.
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SIGMET, AIRMET and Weather Warnings
In-flight hazard advisories and warnings: SIGMETs, convective SIGMETs, AIRMETs, GAMETs, center weather advisories, aerodrome warnings and who issues them.
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Significant Weather and Graphical Forecasts
Forecast charts and graphical products that show en-route hazards: high- and low-level SIGWX charts, US graphical forecasts, ceiling and visibility analysis and flight categories.
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Surface and Upper Air Charts
How to read surface analysis charts and station models, constant pressure charts, and upper wind and temperature forecasts.
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Surface Wind
Wind near the ground, its daily variation, gusts and gales, how it is measured and reported, and the warnings issued for strong wind.
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TAF and TREND Forecasts
The terminal aerodrome forecast and the landing trend forecast, their format, change and probability groups, amendments and how to interpret them for planning.
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Temperature and Heat Exchange
How the sun and earth heat the atmosphere, why temperatures vary by season, place and time of day, and how air temperature is measured.
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Temperature Inversions
Layers where temperature rises with height: how radiation, subsidence and turbulence inversions form and what they mean for visibility, cloud and flight.
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The Atmosphere
The make-up and vertical structure of the atmosphere, the International Standard Atmosphere and how air density relates to pressure and temperature.
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The International Standard Atmosphere (ISA)
The ICAO standard atmosphere, its sea-level values, lapse rate and tropopause, how pressure and density fall with height, how ISA deviation is worked out, and how the model underlies altimetry and performance.
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Thunderstorms
How cumulonimbus clouds and thunderstorms form, their life cycle and types, squall lines, the hazards they bring and how pilots avoid them.
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Tropical Revolving Storms
Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones: how they form, their structure, their regional names and seasons, and the warnings issued for them.
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Turbulence
The causes of atmospheric turbulence, clear air turbulence, how turbulence intensity is classified and forecast, and how to fly through it.
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Visibility and Runway Visual Range
The different definitions of visibility, how prevailing visibility and RVR are measured and reported, and the instruments that measure them.
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Volcanic Ash
The hazard volcanic ash poses to aircraft, how ash clouds are detected and tracked, the advisory system and color code, and what to do in an encounter.
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Wind Forces and Geostrophic Wind
The forces that make the wind blow, how they balance in the geostrophic and gradient winds, and how friction and temperature change wind with height.
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Windshear and Microbursts
Sudden changes in wind speed or direction, the microbursts that cause the most dangerous low-level shear, how shear is detected and warned, and how to recognize and recover.
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