Wow thats some solid cloud deck

 

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An accurate weather radar? WOW! And I actually started to believe it could not be done.... Cant wait to try this!

 

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Will, check out this video here: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/426678-well-have-to-learn-to-fly-again-in-fsx-under-adverse-weather/?p=2855947

 

Notice the correlation between the precipitation and the radar gauge in the lower left?

One idea for AS in the future would be a warning about bad weather over your destination. Would be great for simming holding over waypoints or ground stops.

Will, check out this video here: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/426678-well-have-to-learn-to-fly-again-in-fsx-under-adverse-weather/?p=2855947

 

Notice the correlation between the precipitation and the radar gauge in the lower left?

Thanks, it looks like a ton of fun. Fsx has its limitations, but this wx engine certainly shows features that add to the immersion.

 

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One idea for AS in the future would be a warning about bad weather over your destination. Would be great for simming holding over waypoints or ground stops.

 

That's outside the scope of AS.  AS is a weather engine, not an ATC program. 

 

Though, you as a pilot, have the ability to bring up the destination weather and make your decision from there to hold out or shoot the approach.

 

That's outside the scope of AS.  AS is a weather engine, not an ATC program. 

 

Though, you as a pilot, have the ability to bring up the destination weather and make your decision from there to hold out or shoot the approach.

 

 

I know it's not an ATC program. But since we have the ability to enter the flight plan, couldn't there be a warning about the destination weather? That way, the user could choose to hold or try to come in.

   

 

I know it's not an ATC program. But since we have the ability to enter the flight plan, couldn't there be a warning about the destination weather? That way, the user could choose to hold or try to come in.

You can tune flightwatch on Comm 2 and get enroute and destination reports.

That's outside the scope of AS.  AS is a weather engine, not an ATC program. 

 

Though, you as a pilot, have the ability to bring up the destination weather and make your decision from there to hold out or shoot the approach.

 

Actually, ASN does report wind shear and SIMGETS/AIRMETS (which could include convective SIGMETS) as part of your weather briefing when tuning to 122.05.

Actually, ASN does report wind shear and SIMGETS/AIRMETS (which could include convective SIGMETS) as part of your weather briefing when tuning to 122.05.

A question: This morning, (Sunday Dec 8) a weather situation exists here in upstate NY, which is quite common in the winter time. A warm front is approaching from the southwest, producing a solid overcast altostratus cloud deck. The problem is that the layer is up at about 16,000 feet AGL right at the moment, so all of the local airport METARS are showing "CLR", which is technically correct, since METARS typically do not report clouds below 12,000 feet.

 

I'm assuming that any weather generation program using strictly METAR-based injection would probably show clear blue skies over this area, though that is not, in fact, the case. I know that ASN will use airmets and sigmets as an additional source of data for the injection of upper air weather conditions. I was wondering if it takes any other non-METAR data into account in setting clouds above 12,000 feet?

 

As an amateur meteorologist, I'm quite familiar with the enormous amount of upper-air data available in the various NCEP forecast models. I assume you already parse one or more if there models to extract your upper winds and temps. Without asking you to reveal any "trade secrets", I was curious if the new program will make use of other NCEP model data to determine whether upper altitude cloud layers exist, even when the METARS do not show them?

 

I expect as the afternoon wears on here in NY, the warm front cloud deck will continue to lower, and will eventually appear in the local METARS.

Hmmm...good question Jim...you're way over my head!! 

 

I'll ask Damian or Kostas to look at this post and they can better answer your question.

Christmas is getting earlier this year...

Trial available for download!!!

 

http://www.hifitechinc.com/downloads

 

 

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Hi Jim,

 

Here is your answer from Damien.

 

Jim's question:

A question: This morning, (Sunday Dec 8) a weather situation exists here in upstate NY, which is quite common in the winter time. A warm front is approaching from the southwest, producing a solid overcast altostratus cloud deck. The problem is that the layer is up at about 16,000 feet AGL right at the moment, so all of the local airport METARS are showing "CLR", which is technically correct, since METARS typically do not report clouds below 12,000 feet.

I'm assuming that any weather generation program using strictly METAR-based injection would probably show clear blue skies over this area, though that is not, in fact, the case. I know that ASN will use airmets and sigmets as an additional source of data for the injection of upper air weather conditions. I was wondering if it takes any other non-METAR data into account in setting clouds above 12,000 feet?

As an amateur meteorologist, I'm quite familiar with the enormous amount of upper-air data available in the various NCEP forecast models. I assume you already parse one or more if there models to extract your upper winds and temps. Without asking you to reveal any "trade secrets", I was curious if the new program will make use of other NCEP model data to determine whether upper altitude cloud layers exist, even when the METARS do not show them?

I expect as the afternoon wears on here in NY, the warm front cloud deck will continue to lower, and will eventually appear in the local METARS.

 

Damian's answer:

 

Feel free to repost this...

Correct,

CLR will be clear, with the chance of cirrus clouds above.

Many stations support > 12000ft cloud coverage reporting (certain automated facilities and some manual as well), but as mentioned some are limited to 12K, perhaps even less. There is no hard fast rule here in my experience, and it depends on the station's reporting policies or their automated observation system settings/capabilities.

Since we don't know what a station's maximum reporting observation altitude for clouds is, it is difficult to apply a global "formula" here that will ignore CLR and inject clouds above a certain minimum altitude. I would argue that most users expect CLR to provide CLR all the way to 25K. Many others would be OK with injecting clouds above 16K when CLR, and a few OK with clouds above 12K when CLR. There is subjective realism as well as realistic variation in station observation policies to consider.

This is an interesting topic and we could definitely work on something more realistic here, for those that desire injection of clouds when CLR. For example we could provide a slider to specify the minimum alt for CLR cloud injection, and analyze surface and aloft data to determine when it would be appropriate to inject such clouds. The downside of this is the increased complexity and confusion (many users dislike any additional options). I like the idea, and believe it would be worth such confusion... after all, we are trying to provide as much realism as possible. Would love to hear from the community on their thoughts here.

Thanks for the response Damian. Without asking you to reveal any "trade secrets" regarding your specific data sources, I assume your weather servers are parsing and processing gridded data from the NCEP GFS model (or equivalent) to produce your worldwide winds aloft and temp aloft data.

 

If so, (in the case of the GFS), for each standard pressure level, and lat/lon grid, in the same group as the U wind, V wind and temp K parameters, there is a parameter for RH (relative humidity). My thought is that for any grid point where the RH is at, or close to 100%, (temp/dew point spread =0), there is almost certain to be visible moisture, with the specific kind of cloud determined by the temperature at that point. Water droplets above 0C (though water can exist in supercooled form as low as -10 to -15C, with any moisture at ambient temps below -15C almost certain to be in the form of ice crystals.

 

If you really wanted to get fancy, you could also look at the VVEL (vertical velocity) parameter, which is an indirect measure of stability i.e. would an upper level cloud deck be likely to be in the form of alto or cirro stratus vs. alto or cirro cumulus etc.

 

Just a thought re: some of the additional model data available to determine the likely presence or absence of clouds at levels above those reported in standard METARS, or in remote areas without reporting stations.

 

 

Can some tell me how to 'turn off' the wind indicator flags in map mode? It seems that once you activate them there is no way to deactivate them. Tried exiting out of the sim and AS, reloaded, restarted and still have the flags. I know, not a big deal, just a little annoying if you don't want them visible any longer and no way to deactivate. Thanks.