Dear Russians, 

Some part of the audience complains about very poor Google translation from Russian to English and apart from that I hope the notes about meteorology theme will be interesting for a variety of people including non-Russians. So let’s perfect our language skills :).

The more you fly the more you get eager to understand the ambient weather conditions. Very soon after starting flying the routes of at least moderate length I realised that such books as ‘Understanding the Sky‘ from Dennnis Pagen are way less profoundness level then my thorough organism is needed. It doesn’t mean the mentioned book doesn’t worth to read though. Furthermore accompanied by well-known ‘Performance Flying’ it’s one of the best selection for very novice pilots (in my opinion). It’s just too generous about many things I’d like to look into.

While digging in this field of science I’m getting more and more fascinated about the progress in the weather forecasting. And the level of fundamental approach using good Maths  appeals to me very much. The more I appreciate the time we’re living in — with all these great possibilities of online courses directed by such professionals you couldn’t have reached ever before.

Currently I’m in love with Mountain Weather Distance Learning Course on MetEd portal.

How to estimate the possibility of mountain waves? What structure do they have? Did you know that sometimes under some circumstances they are likely to occur in very average winds from 7-8 m/s? And then in such cases it becomes not only about gliders, but about smaller and slower hang gliders. There’re some activities when you can alter the set of the conditions (the wind strength, the hight of the terrain, the lapse rate and etc.) and see the differences.

The section about mountain wind systems is also great. The author of it is Charles David Whiteman. (He wrote Mountain Meteorology: Fundamentals and Applications, very useful book, I think). That’s amazing thing with real Alpine examples. Very often during the course you meet so familiar and sweet to heart Mountain areas, videos from Alpine weather stations, explanations of some peculiar valley effects using concrete pictures and weather data.

If you really go deep into the field here’re some interesting additional articles I found:

• Downslope Winds by Dale R. Durran, University of Washington, USA, 2002
• Pressure-Driven Channeling Effects in Bent Valleys, M. Kossmann and A. P. Sturman, 2002
  

(This one is about the types and reasons of convergence/divergence on valley corners.)

On the MetEd they also have slightly weaker Mesoscale Meteorology: A Primer for Forecasters, but I guess it’s of course can be useful.

Share on Facebook