• Introduction
  • About the Lesson
  • About Fog
• Case Study: 00 UTC
  • Case Setup
  • TAF
  • METAR
  • Sounding
  • SYNOPS
  • Weather Story
  • Satellite Images and Products
  • Reviewing the Products, Part 1
  • Reviewing the Products, Part 2
  • Building the Weather Story
  • Charts to Check
  • Checking the 00 UTC Charts
  • Checking the 00 to 12 UTC Charts
  • Comparing Obs. Data with NWP
• Case Study: 04 UTC
  • METARs
  • Satellite Products
  • Decision
  • Amending the TAF
  • Amended TAF and Impacts
  • What Happened?
• Summary

Summary

Fog and low stratus can have a significant impact on aviation operations through reduced ceiling and visibilities. Satellite imagery and products are very effective tools for detecting the presence of low clouds and fog, determining their aeral coverage, and monitoring their evolution. This is especially true of radiation fog, where the fog area tends to dissipate from the edges inward with daytime heating.

Since satellites look down on clouds, it is hard to distinguish areas of low cloud from fog (which starts at ground level). Therefore, it is vital to use all of your weather data and integrate satellite information with surface and upper air observations to determine where fog may actually be occurring.

Satellite and other observational data are vital tools for evaluating NWP guidance. Based on how the models initialize, you may need to adjust the model forecast before writing the details of your aviation forecast.