Aviation Meteorology

Pressure System
A pressure system is a region of the Earth's atmosphere where air pressure is unusually
high or low. High and low pressures develop (and dissipate) constantly due to
thermodynamic interactions of temperature differentials in the atmosphere and water of
oceans and lakes.

Air always flows from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure to try to reduce pressure
differences and reach equilibrium.  The rotation of the Earth generates a force known as the
Coriolis effect and this stops the air moving in a straight line.  Rather the winds move in a spiral:
inwards and upwards in low pressure systems, downwards and outwards in high pressure
systems. 

Types of Pressure System

 Low Pressure System- Cyclones

Low Pressure System – Cyclones

Regions of rising air are called lows, low pressure systems, depressions or cyclones.  These are
systems of closed isobars (lines of constant pressure) surrounding a region of relatively low
pressure.  Cloudy conditions, windy weather, rain and snow and unsettled changable weather
often occur in these regions.

A low pressure system develops when relatively warm and moist air rises from the surface of
the Earth.  Air near the centre of a low pressure system is unstable.  As the warm humid air
spirals upwards, it cools and clouds form.  These may be thick enough to give rain or snow. 

In these low pressure systems the air spirals inwards at the Earth’s surface. If the pressure is
very low, these spiralling winds may reach storm or hurricane force. This is why the term
cyclone is often loosely applied to storms generated by low pressure.
High Pressure System – Anticyclones

Regions of sinking air are called highs, high pressure regions or anticyclones. They are
usually accompanied by constant, good or fair weather.   High pressure systems tend to
cover a greater area than lows, they move more slowly and have a longer atmospheric
lifetime.

Anticyclones are produced by a large mass of descending air.  As the air sinks, it warms
up, the atmospheric pressure increases and the relative humidity decreases.  This causes
water droplets in the air to evaporate and leads to dry weather. 
Anticyclones are much larger than cyclones and may block the path of depressions.   This
slows down the arrival of bad weather or forces it to travel elsewhere.   An anticyclone that
persists for a long period is known as a 'blocking high' and these lead to long hot spells and
even droughts during the summer and extremely cold winters.
 Navigation
Chart Projections
Because a cartographer cannot transfer a sphere to a flat surface without distortion, he must project the
surface of a sphere onto a developable surface. A developable surface is one that can be flattened to
form a plane. This process is known as chart projection. If points on the surface of the sphere are
projected from a single point, the projection is said to be perspective or geometric.

Types of Projections
Following are the three types of Projections:

 Azimuthal Projection
 Cylindrical Projection
 Conical Projection

Azimuthal Projection
Cylindrical Projection
Mercator Projection
The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection presented by the Flemish geographer and
cartographer Gerardus Mercator, in 1569. It became the standard map projection for nautical purposes
because of its ability to represent lines of constant course, known as rhumb lines or loxodromes, as
straight segments. While the linear scale is constant in all directions around any point, thus preserving
the angles and the shapes of small objects (which makes the projection conformal), the Mercator
projection distorts the size and shape of large objects, as the scale increases from the Equator to the
poles, where it becomes infinite.

A Mercator map can never fully show the polar areas, since linear scale becomes infinitely high at the
poles. Being a conformal projection, angles are preserved around all locations.

Properties

All lines of constant bearing (rhumb lines or loxodromes — those making constant angles with
the meridians), are represented by straight segments on a Mercator map. This is precisely the
type of route usually employed by ships at sea, where compasses are used to indicate
geographical directions and to steer the ships. The two properties, conformality and straight
rhumb lines, make this projection uniquely suited to marine navigation: courses and bearings
are measured using wind roses or protractors, and the corresponding directions are easily
transferred from point to point, on the map, with the help of a parallel ruler or a pair of
navigational squares.
Mercator Chart
Lambert conformal conical Projection
A Lambert conformal conic projection (LCC) is a conic map projection, which is often used for
aeronautical charts. In essence, the projection superimposes a cone over the sphere of the Earth, with
two reference parallels secant to the globe and intersecting it. This minimizes distortion from projecting
a three dimensional surface to a two-dimensional surface. There is no distortion along the standard
parallels, but distortion increases further from the chosen parallels. As the name indicates, maps using
this projection are conformal.

Pilots favor these charts because a straight line drawn on a Lambert conformal conic projection
approximates a great-circle route between endpoints. The European Environment Agency recommends
its usage for conformal pan-European mapping at scales smaller or equal to 1:500,000.