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This will give the altitude of the cloud base in feet above ground level. Put in a simpler way, 400 feet for every 1°C dew point spread. For metric divide the spread in °C by 8 and multiply by 1000 and get the cloud base in meters. Add the results from step (2) to the field elevation to obtain the altitude of the cloud base above mean sea level.
General aviation pilots use dew point data to calculate the likelihood of carburetor icing and fog, and to estimate the height of a cumuliform cloud base. Increasing the barometric pressure raises the dew point. [10]
In New Zealand, MetService operates a network of laser ceilometers for cloud base measurements at commercial airports. These sensors are also used to map volcanic ash clouds to allow commercial air traffic to avoid damage caused by ash. The movement of volcanic ash has also been tracked from areas such as Iceland. [16] [17] [18]
The cloud height, more commonly known as cloud thickness or depth, is the distance between the cloud base and the cloud top. [1] It is traditionally expressed either in metres or as a pressure difference in hectopascal (hPa, equivalent to millibar ).
It marks where the cloud base begins when air is heated from below to the convective temperature, without mechanical lift. [ 1 ] Once the CCL is determined, the surface temperature necessary to raise a mass of air to that height can be found by using the Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate (DALR) to determine the potential temperature.
The cloud base will be somewhere within the layer bounded by these parameters. The difference between the dry adiabatic lapse rate and the rate at which the dew point drops is around 4.5 °C per 1,000 m. Given a difference in temperature and dew point readings on the ground, one can easily find the LCL by multiplying the difference by 125 m/°C.
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The height at which the cloud forms depends on the amount of moisture in the thermal that forms the cloud. Humid air will generally result in a lower cloud base. In temperate areas, the base of the cumulus clouds is usually below 550 metres (1,800 ft) above ground level, but it can range up to 2,400 metres (7,900 ft) in altitude. In arid and ...