Weather - Marine Layer

[Guest PilotTrevor88]

Hi, I'm a long-time sim pilot, and a real world pilot. I've always just flown with real-world weather, but I am now noticing I can never get the weather to have that beautiful effect of a low thin layer of overcast clouds (marine layer).If I manually play around with the weather, and I set it for overcast clouds with a base of 1000 with tops at 2000, I will get scattered clouds that range from 3000 feet to 7000 feet. It's totally weird, I've tried selecting every type of cloud i.e. "cumulus" or "cirrus" etc., but I never get that purely overcast layer of clouds that has a smooth top. Basically, I'm not getting what I want, and I would like to know if anyone else DOES get that?I'm going to add an attachment of a picture I took a couple of months ago in the L.A. area. If anyone could enlighten me, and tell me how to achieve what I have in this picture, I'd love to hear from you.thank you,-trevorhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/160827.jpg

[Guest The_Pharoah]

*cough* ActiveSky *cough* :(

[Mace 1,909]

ActiveSky can do that, if it's configured properly. And you will need a pretty solid computer to handle a horizon-to-horizon cloud deck.I recently read a story written by a VFR-rated pilot who flew down the coast, and got caught in a marine layer cloud deck by mistake. He considered flying a 180 turn to get out of it but stuck it out.Those SoCal marine layers sound rough.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2.5 ghz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (94.47), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

[Guest PilotTrevor88]

k, thanks. i'll give it a try.

[Guest MattNW]

It was the same in FS2002 and 2004. I see they haven't fixed it in FSX either. Looks like I'll have to get Active Sky when it's confirmed to run on FSX and I've upgraded my computer.

[JSkorna 137]

Hi,Active Sky is confirmed to run on FSX.Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development Team Active Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/AirSource Member: http://www.air-source.us/FSEconomy Member:http://www.fseconomy.com/

[Guest dg3274]

Could you give an example of a metar string (for use in ActiveSky) that would simulate the conditions shown in the picture posted by PilotTrevor88?Thanks!

[Damian Clark 1,234]

Hi there,Thanks for the referral ;) ActiveSky does make things better here but being realistic about expectations, there are some limitations with FS (including FSX) that make 'horizon-to-horizon' overcast difficult to simulate properly in some situations, especially when layers are very close to the ground. This is mainly because of the station-based weather system, cloud model system, and its technical details which I'll not go into here...The real shot shown is possible with AS (the overcast enhancement feature goes a long way), but depends on a few factors, like what all the wx stations in the area are reporting. That said, AS in Socal tends to work nicely for marine layers. As a socal pilot myself (SNA) I'm very familiar. It's the main reason I decided to get instrument rated. It's safe to say that AS got a little "extra attention" in this specific department ;)As for the marine layers being "rough"... well, for a VFR-only pilot yes indeed. But its the perfect kind of "safe" IFR/IMC weather to get lots of actual IMC practice time :) The layers are generally calm, indicative of stable air, and only rise to about 4000AGL in the more extreme cases. The marine layer effect is really a type of "advection fog" mostly occuring in the months of May/June caused by the offshore air to be heated by the warming ocean then cooling to condense when it moves onshore over the colder land mass. The same thing is experienced in many parts of the world...Best,

[Guest grapesh]

To me, marine layer also means an abrupt change in turbulence when flying near the coast, in VFR. Sometimes, when you approach the ocean on a bumpy day, the air aloft becomes much smoother. I don't have a copy of FSX to play with yet but I guess it is not in there, along with other hi-res weather effects.Cheers,

[Damian Clark 1,234]

Hi,You would need more than one METAR string at one station. But if you applied the following globally (or within a large range of the desired station) with default options it should give a good effect:000000Z 5SM BKN005 OVC010 16/16 A2999If you prefer a more "horizon-to-horizon" look you might want to turn on global writes (and turn off global auto toggle). Make sure "depict FS9 haze layer" is on to get a better 'haze' effect to increase the perceived density of the clouds.Best,

[Damian Clark 1,234]

Also, instead of manually configuring the weather, I would instead recommend going back in the archives between the months of May and June. The real data does a much better job to depict this kind of scenario.Best,

[cat 2]

Show us an ActiveSky pic showing this layer of cloud.Peter Sydney Australia