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BASIC ACADEMICS REQUIREMENTS: MET

ALL THE BASIC TOPICS ARE COVERED IN DETAIL, THE STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO KNOW THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE SUBJECT TOPICS ONLY

INTRODUCTION TO METEOROLOGY
Objective: - To give a brief introduction to the science of meteorology. Desired Learning Outcomes:1. Understand the origin of Met 2. Assess the cycle of seasons throughout the year 3. Evaluate the practical importance of Met for a pilot 1. Introduction. Man has always been influenced by the surrounding environment especially by the conditions of the surrounding atmosphere. Heat, cold, rain and humidity etc. affect everybody, but in aviation we are more concerned about weather as it affects our operations. In the ancient times weather was a mystery but the advancement of knowledge proved that weather phenomena can be explained, utilizing basic laws of physics. The aim of this book is to present weather in a basic form so that a pilot is able to understand it without getting into complicated details. 2. Meteorology. Meteorology comes from a Greek word "Meteor" which means things seen in the air and is used for all the phenomena occurring in the atmosphere. Since weather is also something seen in the air so the science dealing with weather was named as Meteorology. Meteorology is a branch of physics that deals with analysis of present weather and assessment of future conditions. The earliest records of meteorology are found in books of Aristotle and over the years it has developed into an independent science with many branches. 3. Weather. The sum of all the atmospheric conditions i.e. temperature, pressure, humidity, wind, cloud and precipitation at a given place and time is called weather. 4. Climate. The trend of weather at a particular place throughout the year is called climate, or in other words climate represents the synthesis of various elements of weather. Seasons 5. It is a common observation that, weather at a particular place is not the same throughout the year and cycles among four seasons. Before studying the reasons for variation in seasons it is vital to revise the following facts:-

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RESTRICTED CHAPTER 1 (a) The axis of earth's rotation is tilted 23.5 degrees to the vertical that it maintains while traveling around the sun. (Fig 1.1)

Fig 1.1 (b) The earth revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit. The eccentricity Fig 1.1 of this ellipse is very close to zero, which means that it is very close to a circle. (c) The sun is biased towards one of the foci, which means that the minimum distance between earth and sun is on the 1st of January. 6. The difference in distance is not the reason for change in seasons. The basic reason is the tilt in earth's axis. In June, the Northern Hemisphere is towards the sun, thus it receives solar radiation at a higher angle and for a longer duration. Both of these contribute towards more heating, so the Northern Hemisphere has summers. At the same time the Southern Hemisphere is away from the sun so it receives radiation at a lower angle and shorter duration resulting in winter. The situation reverses in December. In this cycle the solar radiation is perpendicular to earth surface between 23.5 deg. North and 23.5 deg. South, so the region between these two latitudes is called the tropics. The latitudes beyond 66.5 deg. North and South, do not receive sunlight for six months so they are called the Polar Regions. The region between 23.5 and 66.5 deg is known as the Temperate Region in both hemispheres. (Fig 1.2)

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Fig 1.2 Meteorological Services 7. Two types of meteorological information are available to aircrew:(a) Weather Report. This gives precise detail of the conditions which have already occurred at a given place and time. (b) Weather Forecast. This is the detail of conditions that are expected to occur over a given place, area or route during a given period of time. Practical Value of Met 8. The information and knowledge of meteorology is important to aircrew for the reasons listed below:(a) Avoidance of hazards e.g. icing, thunder, turbulence, poor visibility etc. (b) Using natural phenomena to advantage e.g. strong wind, jet streams. (c) Flight plans often change at short notice and revised weather forecasts may not be readily available. (d) In case of limited or inaccurate weather forecasts, in-flight observations can be helpful. (e) Observations made from the air and passed to ground become more valuable if the observer has sound knowledge of meteorology. 3 RESTRICTED

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GENERAL WEATHERS WEATHER FINE FAIR CLOUDY FOG MIST HAZE DRW DIS VISIBILITY 10 10 10 CLOUDS NIL < 4 OKTA 4 OKTA OR MORE RH REMARKS

<1 KM >95% >1<4KMS >75<95% >4<10KMS <75% (when loose dust is raised by the wind and it reduces visibility) (when fine loose dust particles get suspended in the air and reduce visibility all around) RAIN (when the diameter of water droplet is >0.5mm or 0.02 inch or more) DRIZZLE (when the diameter of droplet is <0.5mm) SNOW (when flakes of snow start to fall) SLEET (when snow and rain is mixed) LIGHTING (when only lighting is observed but no thunder is heard. Normally CB cell is not in close vicinity of the station) TS (only thunder is heard but without rain) TSRA (thunderstorm with rain) DS (Vis <1km and wind 28kts or more) DSTSRA (dust storm with thunder storm followed by rain) HAIL STORM (in TSRA when hail stones starts to fall)

Questions for Study & Discussion

DLO 1 DLO 2 DLO 3 What are various met services available to a pilot? How does Met practically help a pilot in his operations? What are the various types of general weathers reported by Met Department? 4 RESTRICTED How would you explain variations in the cycle of seasons? What is met? What is the origin of Met? What is the difference between weather & climate?