Sun, Jan 19, 2025 - 04:35UTC
Significant Weather (SIGWX) charts are made available by Meteorological Office. High level (SWH) charts are from FL250 to FL630. Medium level (SWM) charts are from FL100 to FL450. Check the validity time of the chart to make sure it coincides approximately to the mid-point of the expected flight. SIGWX charts are issued every 6 hours.
Wind and Temperature charts should be issued in conjunction with the SIGWX and should ideally coincide with approximately the mid-point of the expected flight. Chart flight levels available for all regions are FL050 / FL080 / FL100 / FL140 / FL180 / FL210 / FL240 / FL270 / FL300 / FL320 / FL340 / FL360 / FL390 / FL410 / FL450 / FL480 / FL530.
Icing Severity charts provides information on expected icing severity in categories: Trace, Light, Moderate, and Severe. These charts are available from flight levels: FL060 / FL100 / FL140/ FL180 / FL240 and FL300.
Turbulence Severity charts. Turbulence can be caused by fronts, windshear or thunderstorms and are dangerous to aircrafts. Turbulence severity is graded as Light, Moderate or Severe. These charts are available from flight levels: FL100 / FL140 / FL180 / FL240 / FL270 / FL300 / FL340 / FL390 and FL450.
Cumulonimbus clouds are the most dangerous clouds in aviation. CB clouds create heavy rains, extreme turbulence and wind, icing conditions, hail, and lightning, so it is best to avoid flight through these clouds.
Satellite images are used to track several weather conditions and are available for aviation purposes. Data is gathered by satellites and is transmitted to land based weather stations. According to the schedule below, they are updated either every 15 minutes, 3 or 6 hours depending on the region.
The surface analysis chart depicts an analysis of the current surface weather. A surface analysis chart shows the areas of high and low pressure, fronts, temperatures, dew points, wind directions and speeds, local weather, and visual obstructions.
The Meteorlogical Office at Abu dhabi International Airport has its own in-house Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) workstation providing numerical model data output files for the Gulf region. The files include amongst others: 48-hour plan views of surface temperature, winds and pressure; custom created plots for thunderstorms and fog as well as 48-hour time-sections for select stations, to a depth of 100hpa, showing instability, wind, temperature, humidity values and the freezing level.