Decoding Aviation Meteorology: Understanding Precipitation

In this blog post on the Aviation Meteorology Series, we will be discussing in detail about Concept of Precipitation in detail. This is a must-read for all practising and aspiring pilots, cabin crew and all aviation professionals. and a very interesting read for all aviation professionals. We recommend reading the entire blog for comprehensive learning.

Experienced aviation professionals can attempt a short quiz directly on Understanding Precipitation to check their knowledge. Click the button below or the icon on the right-side tab to start the quiz.

Quiz

Understanding precipitation and its associated phenomena is crucial for pilots, cabin crew, and aviation professionals, including aspiring ones, as it directly impacts flight operations and safety. Precipitation, whether in the form of rain, snow, or sleet, affects visibility, runway conditions, and aircraft performance during takeoff and landing.

Knowledge about precipitation patterns, such as the occurrence of cloud bursts or flash floods, helps aviation personnel anticipate adverse weather conditions and take necessary precautions to ensure passenger safety and operational efficiency.

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Additionally, comprehension of precipitation's diurnal and seasonal variations enables professionals to plan flight routes effectively, considering factors like convection activity and weather fronts.

Familiarity with artificial rain-making techniques like cloud seeding and fog dispersal aids in mitigating weather-related disruptions and enhancing flight operations.

In essence, a thorough understanding of precipitation is indispensable for navigating the skies safely and efficiently in the dynamic environment of aviation.

The Precipitation

The term precipitation refers to the phenomenon of liquid water drops or solid water particles falling from clouds to the ground.

Drizzle (DZ) constitutes the precipitation of water drops of very small size, typically ranging from 100 to 500 micrometers in radius.

Rain (RA) consists of drops with a radius ranging from about 500 to 2500 micrometers.

Showers (SH) involve solid or liquid drops with a radius exceeding 2500 micrometers.

Hail (CR) is solid precipitation in the form of balls or pieces of ice (hailstones) with diameters ranging from 5 to 50 millimeters or more. Snow (SN) is an assembly of ice crystals, while sleet is essentially wet snow.

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For precipitation to occur, water drops or ice crystals must attain sufficient size to overcome the vertical currents inside the clouds. The precise process by which cloud particles attain these sizes remains incompletely understood.

However, several theories have been proposed to explain the occurrence of precipitation:

Ice Crystal Theory

In cold clouds, which have tops extending well above the freezing level, supercooled water drops and ice particles coexist. With the saturation vapor pressure being higher over water drops than over ice crystals, the water drops evaporate and sublimate (directly convert into water vapor without passing through the liquid phase) over the ice crystals.

As a result, the ice crystals grow at the expense of the water drops. During descent, larger ice crystals encounter supercooled water drops, which freeze onto them continuously. These ice crystals grow to significant sizes and fall out of the cloud base as snow or rain.

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