1 Introduction
Display lightning and radar information
In this topic, you learn how to use the Lightning and Radar layers included with your regional weather subscription.
We estimate that this will take 7 minutes to complete.
2 Detailed explanation
Lightning and Radar weather layers
Enable the weather layers on the REGIONAL tab to display
information for regions for which you have a weather
information subscription. For example, if you enable radar
images for Europe, then you do not see radar images for the
U.S.
N-Tracking
provides the following weather layers:
■ Lightning: cloud to
ground and cloud to cloud lightning data for subscribed
region(s)
■ Radars: radar for
different areas using colors to indicate precipitation type
and intensity
■ Tropical Forecasts:
information on hurricanes, cyclones, and tropical storms
■ Forecast winds and
temperature: forecast winds and temperature aloft and areas of
high winds
■ Current winds and
temperature: current winds and temperature aloft
■ Current volcanoes
forecast: location of currently active volcanoes
■ Ash forecast: images
and forecast of the latest areas affected by ash
■ Jet streams
forecasts: direction, speed and location of the
jet stream
■ Surface visibility
forecast: surface visibility.
■ Forecast surface
fronts: warm, cold, and occluded fronts
■ Forecast ceiling: cloud ceiling and flight category
In this topic,
you learn about the first two layers in the preceding list.
For this example, start with your map positioned over Florida, with a zoom of 100 nm.
Click the Layers button.
You can always adjust the setting of the Brightness slider to change the contrast between the water and land features on the map.
Click the REGIONAL tab.
The display of lightning strokes can be
obscured on the map by other weather layers, such as the Radars layers (which use
similar colors).
For this
example, enable the Lightning layer on its own.
Click the Lightning slider.
Enable all three of the lightning layer options.
Lightning symbols are color coded to depict
age. This data updates every minute.
Click the Cloud
strokes
slider.
Click the Ground
strokes
slider.
Use the + and - buttons to adjust the time interval for which you want lightning information displayed.
Click the Density slider.
Zoom in to a level of 50 nm to look at the strokes more closely.
Click the Zoom
in (+)
button.
HINT
Not all cloud lightning strokes are counted or displayed on the Lightning weather layer. Only a fraction of cloud lightning activity is displayed. However, this is still enough data to warn you of approaching thunderstorms.
Hover your mouse over a depicted area of lightning activity and N-Tracking displays some detailed information on-screen.
If you click on the depicted lightning
strokes, N-Tracking displays the same information in the Weather pane (in the upper
right of the map).
For this
example, click in the area below
and to the right of the on-screen information.
Click the
highlighted area.
Notice that the information pane has
two tabs. If the NAV pane opens, but you
want to see weather details, click the Weather tab to change the
display. You can scroll
through the information as needed, using the scroll bars.
When you finish
your review, close the pane.
Click the Close
(X)
button.
You have completed your brief review of using the Lightning layers. Access their sliders again in the REGIONAL tab and disable the display of lightning information for now.
Click the Layers button.
Disable the "global" Lightning slider to disable all of its sub-options and then move on to review how the Radars layers work.
Click the Lightning slider.
The Radars layers display current composite radar, including precipitation type and intensity for the region you select.
Enable the Radars layer.
Click the Radars slider.
Radar images are available for several
different geographic zones. Enable the ones that are relevant
for your flying regions.
For this
example, enable radar images for the United States.
Click the Radar,
US
slider.
You can use the - and + controls to display
the forecast of the radar trends across your chosen area. You
can choose from Current to 175 minutes in
the past, with five-minute intervals.
The radar images
use different colors to indicate the intensity of the falling
rain or snow. While color schemes can be different, the most common
include:
■ Light green: light rain, or rain aloft not reaching ground
■ Dark green: light to moderate rain
■ Yellow: moderate rain
■ Orange: heavy rain
■ Red: very heavy rain or rain and hail
■ White or blue: snow
■ Pink: freezing rain or sleet or mix of winter precipitation types
The mixture of light and dark green and yellow in this static radar image indicates a mixture of light to moderate rain.
Storm echo tops reflect the top of an area of
precipitation, as detected by radar.
Currently, storm
echo tops information is available for the U.S. only.
To determine where the echo tops for these storms are found, enable the Storm Echo Tops layer.
Click the Storm
Echo Tops, US slider.
The arrows pointing out from the storm echo tops indicators show the direction the storm is moving.
Zoom in to a 20 nm zoom level to focus on a storm in a particular area.
Click Zoom
in (+).
You may also choose to display lightning strokes along with storm activity. For this example, enable the Lightning layer.
Click the Lightning slider.
You can enable lightning layers to show both real-time and delayed cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud lightning. Use the + and - controls to set the time period for which you want to display lightning data.
The ACTIVE LAYERS pane shows all the
weather layers you have enabled. You can use the Show/Hide icon to hide or reveal
the list.
To enable or
disable a weather layer, you must always use the relevant tabs in the Layers menu.
Hover your mouse over an Echo tops indicator
on the map and N-Tracking displays detailed information
on-screen. In this example, the white FL250 icon with an arrow
pointing northwest represents storm JAX-R2. The storm top is
at 14,000 ft.
If you click
that icon, the information displays in the Weather pane in the upper
right of the map.
Click the
highlighted Echo tops icon.
The same information previously displayed
on-screen in a "pop-up" displays in the Weather pane. You can copy
information from the columns of the table into your clipboard
if you want to communicate it to someone.
Close the Weather pane when you
complete your review.
Click the Close button.
Your zoom level and other active weather
layers can affect the visibility of lightning symbols. In this
example, the colors used in the radar image make it
challenging to see the three lightning symbols that display in
the highlighted area, just below the FL350 indicator 
.
Hover your mouse over another storm echo tops icon. For this example, the highlighted yellow icon for FL250. N-Tracking shows detailed information about storm JAX-T1.
Click the Layers button.
Disable the Lightning weather layer.
Click the Lightning slider.
Different from the static radar image, you can
click the Play button to view an
animated recording of the DTN feed of radar images. The feed
updates every 5 minutes.
Display images
as of the current time or click the minus (-) or plus (+) icons to view the
forecast of the radar trends across your chosen area.
You can choose
from current to 175 minutes in the past, with five-minute
intervals.
Click the Play button.
HINT
If you click anywhere on the map while the
animation is playing, N-Tracking provides detailed text about
the radar images in the Weather pane.
It may be
difficult to get a real sense of the change of the animated
images in this topic.
Stop playing the radar animation.
Click the Stop button.
Next, let's review radar coverage areas. To do
that, it makes most sense to use a higher zoom level.
Zoom out to see
more of the map. For this example, zoom out to 500 nm.
Click Zoom
out (-).
Click the Coverage
areas
slider.
N-Tracking shows the geographic areas covered by your selected radar imagery. Coverage areas are bounded by dotted lines.
Click the Layers button.
Disable the Coverage areas layer.
Click the Coverage
areas
slider.
Disable the remaining radar layers by clicking the "global" Radars slider.
Click the Radars slider.