posted 10-29-2000 08:43 PM
As a tool to evaluate the atmospheric environment in which trails (normal or not) are observed, people should look at Upper Air Soundings for their geographical area.
These will provide, authentic, irrefutable, measured data which will provide an OBJECTIVE, SCIENTIFIC basis for evaluating whether aircraft trails should be persistent or not.The Unisys Weather site has information about Skew-T plots:
Upper Air Sounding Plots http://weather.unisys.com/upper_air/skew/index.html
more details:
Upper Air Sounding Details http://weather.unisys.com/upper_air/skew/details.html
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One can obtain data from the following locations:
http://www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mab/soundings/
http://www-das.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html
http://asp1.sbs.ohio-state.edu/skewt.html
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These are the best general explanations I have found:
"A guide to Skew-T's - the graphical version of an atmospheric forecasting and weather analysis"
http://www.nemas.net/edu/skewt/skewt.html
"SkewT Diagram Informational and Current Data Website"
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/department/classes/ge406/cledlin/index.html
"The Weather Center- Help With Skew-T Interpretation"
http://theweathercenter.com/help/skewt/0.html
"How to Read a Skew-T/Log-P Diagram"
http://meteora.ucsd.edu/weather/cdf/text/how_to_read_skewt.html
"A Guide to Skew-T Interpretation (detailed, technical)"
http://www.nemas.net/edu/skewt/skewt.html
"WORKING WITH UPPER AIR REPORTS" http://zowie.metnet.navy.mil/~mundyj/JMV-WebHelp/WorkingWithUpperAirReports.html