1 Introduction
Display weather hazards: EDR turbulence, icing forecast, and EDR thunderstorm forecast
In this topic, you learn how to add information about weather hazards such as turbulence, icing, and thunderstorms to the map and to interpret that information.
We estimate that this will take 6 minutes to complete.
2 Detailed explanation
Weather hazards
Display flight hazards using the information provided in the HAZARD tab to optimize flight routes or improve flight decisions based on those hazards. The options include:
■ Global ozone forecast: forecasting position and the concentration of the ozone layer
For more details on working with the Global ozone forecast layer, consult the topic, Display weather hazards: Global ozone forecast.
■ EDR turbulence: turbulence at multiple flight levels as well as forecast periods globally or for the North American Mesoscale Model (NAM)
■ Icing forecast: forecasts for icing for different flight levels, as well as forecast periods over North America or globally
■ EDR thunderstorms forecast: forecast convective activity and intensity for different forecast periods globally or for North America.
HINT
The HAZARD tab is available only if you subscribe for weather information for at least one region.
Let's get oriented: Start with the map focused
on the United States, at a zoom level of 200 nm. Then, explore
applying and interpreting turbulence, icing, and thunderstorm
forecast information.
As with the
other weather information, use the Layers button to access the
weather HAZARD layer.
Click the Layers button.
EDR (Eddy Dissipation Rate) is an objective and universal aircraft-independent measure of turbulence based on the rate at which energy dissipates in the atmosphere.
Click the EDR
Turbulence slider.
Use the EDR Turbulence layer to depict turbulence data on the map either globally, or
for North America alone.
You can display
this information for different flight levels and at the
current time or for a number of hours into the future.
The NAM forecast
updates hourly and the global forecast updates every 12 hours.
Click the NAM slider.
Let's see what turbulence over the U.S. looks like at FL 180.
Choose the applicable flight level or forecast
period using the offset controls 
.
Click the NAM
FL +
button.
Interpret the colors that depict turbulence
using this legend:
The legend also
shows the EDR level at which different weights of aircraft
will experience turbulence as light, moderate, severe or
extremely severe.
Click the NAM
Next hours + (plus) button.
Click the Zoom
in (+)
button.
You can now see turbulence for NAM FL180
forecast for the next three hours.
Zoom in (to 50 nm) to look in more detail at the areas of turbulence.
To utilize this data, let's display the flight plan for SCX101 on the map.
Click the
SCX101 aircraft icon.
Click the Flight
Plan
slider.
Close the Flight details pane by clicking anywhere on the map.
Click anywhere
on the map.
Hover your mouse over the green area on the flight path of flight SCX101. N-Tracking displays information about forecast turbulence.
Multiply the value by 100 to determine the EDR rate.
Notice that several of the colored areas use two different shades of green to depict different levels of turbulence. Hover your mouse over the different colors to learn the difference.
The lighter green area within this larger shape shows a value of 0.3 for the forecast turbulence.
Zoom out again to see more of the map.
Click the Zoom
out (-)
button.
Access the display of global turbulence information.
Click the Layers button.
Disable the NAM turbulence layer.
Click the NAM slider.
Click the Global slider.
As you did on the previous display, hover your mouse over any of the green-shaded areas to view details on the forecast turbulence.
Disable the EDR Turbulence layer.
Click the EDR
Turbulence slider.
Next, explore how to view and interpret icing forecast information on the map.
Click the Icing
Forecast
slider.
The Icing Forecast layer provides the same flight level and time offset controls you saw on the previous layer.
Click the Global slider.
In this example, at flight level 010, the forecast shows relatively few areas of icing (mostly on the Labrador coast and in James Bay).
Click the Global
FL +
button.
The colors used to depict icing are as
follows:
.
For flight level 030, more areas of icing are depicted.
Use the Next
hours
offset control to review icing conditions 3 hours from now.
You can display
the global forecast up to 23 hours in the future.
Click the Global
Next hours + button.
Next, review the "North American" icing forecast.
Click the NAM slider.
Click the NAM
FL +
button.
For flight level 030, the global icing conditions are slightly different.
Disable the Global icing forecast layer to view the information displayed by the NAM layer only.
Click the Global slider.
The icing forecast for North America shows
different areas subject to icing conditions.
Hover your mouse
over any of the colored areas for more details.
The highlighted
light blue area indicates light icing conditions.
A darker blue region indicates moderate icing conditions.
Click the Icing
Forecast
slider.
Click the EDR
Thunderstorms Forecast slider.
The EDR Thunderstorms Forecast layer displays
convective activity and its intensity globally or for North
America alone.
View the current
global forecast.
Click the Global slider.
Zoom out to 1000 nm to see more of the map.
Click the Zoom
out (-)
button.
With the map positioned to show Asia and the Pacific Ocean, zoom in and examine the multi-colored area south of Japan (in the Pacific) that represents an area of thunderstorms.
Click the Zoom
in (+)
button.
Hover your mouse over the different colors in this depicted area of forecast thunderstorms to learn more about storm intensity.
This chart shows the colors used to depict the
intensity of the thunderstorm activity:
Areas colored
with reds represent the most intense storms.
For the next part of this example, zoom out again and re-position the map to show North America.
Click the Zoom
out (-)
button.
Enable the EDR Thunderstorms Forecast NAM layer.
Click the NAM slider.
Immediately, you can see convective activity in the Gulf of Florida that wasn't depicted in the global view.
Disable the Global layer to view the details provided on the NAM layer on its own.
Click the Global slider.
Click the NAM
Next hours + button.
You can use the Next hours offset control to view the forecast for up to 18 hours in the future.
Three hours from now, the thunderstorm activity may have changed slightly and you may reassess the impact for the flights you're tracking.
SUCCESS
Congratulations! You have applied the different weather hazard layers to the map and can interpret the information they provide.