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    Isoline chart not changing with altitude

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    • MigrationM
      Migration | Premium
      last edited by

      1. Moving the altitude slider to select, say 500mb isoline view does not display a 500mb isoline chart.
      2. Most times the isoline labels will show the new barometric pressure, but not always.

      aca0b54a-c960-4f62-bbd3-4e869a1e7c57-image.png

      9ae779b5-8ff4-452e-8945-c7ca7f58a76d-image.png

      idefix37I 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • idefix37I
        idefix37 Sailor Moderator @Migration
        last edited by idefix37

        @Migration
        What you show are Isobars i.e. pressure isolines at sea level. They have no reason to change when you move the altitude slider.
        In altitude meteorologists use Isohypses which are the Geopotential height isolines i.e. the altitude of a pressure surface, for instance at 500hPa. To display these isolines, go to More layers and select Geopot. height.

        E8DEB7E8-6DE9-42FD-AB19-1C78D0E75EC5.jpeg

        In Windy they are expressed in metres.
        http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/76/

        AidzerA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • AidzerA
          Aidzer Pilot @idefix37 | Premium
          last edited by

          @idefix37 is this also applicable on mobile app?

          idefix37I 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • idefix37I
            idefix37 Sailor Moderator @Aidzer
            last edited by idefix37

            @aidzer
            The Geopotential height isolines are available in the mobile app but only with a tablet, not with a phone.
            I have got the screenshot in my previous post here above with my iPad.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • MigrationM
              Migration | Premium
              last edited by

              Great, thanks. How do I display pressure isobars at 500hPa labelled with hPA value instead of height .

              idefix37I 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • idefix37I
                idefix37 Sailor Moderator @Migration
                last edited by idefix37

                @Migration
                Pressure at 500hPa is uniformly 500hPa ! There is no way to do what you want because the altitude slider does not show a real altitude but a pressure level. It’s how the weather models work.

                MigrationM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Yves70Y
                  Yves70 Meteorologist | Premium
                  last edited by Yves70

                  @Migration
                  Isobares give you lines with the locations at the same pressure. Those pressures are expressed in hPa and always refer to the sea level.
                  Isohypses (geopotential) are lines which connect locations having the same selected pressure that you choose, for instance 500hPa, but at different altitudes or heights. We talk about height, not pressure so it is expressed in m or dam. At 500hPa, altitude should be around 5500m but depending of the weather conditions, height can be higher (anticyclonic conditions) or lower (cyclonic conditions). This is the interest of those geopotential data, to see if the situation at the ground level is connected with the altitude : high pressure at sea level connected with high geopotential.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • MigrationM
                    Migration @idefix37 | Premium
                    last edited by

                    @idefix37 With the sider all the way down, windy shows isobars (isolines of pressure) at sea level.
                    With the slider moved up to 500mb, I expect windy to show a chart of isobars (isolines of pressure) representing conditions in the mid- troposphere. This level is at an altitude of approximately 5,500 meters (18.000 ft), relative to a standard atmospheric pressure of 1013.25mb at sea level.

                    Windy does display this chart, if geopotential height is selected. The isobar labels then represent pressure as equivalent altitude in feet.
                    Not much use to a sailor. I want to know how to display isobar (isolines of pressure) values in mb instead of feet.
                    Here is an example standard 500mb (500hPa) chart from ECMWF.

                    https://stream.ecmwf.int/data/gorax-blue-009/data/scratch/20201120-0600/a0/render-gorax-blue-009-6fe5cac1a363ec1525f54343b6cc9fd8-Z3CX9u.png

                    99ea9725-a670-48cf-92df-eb8079094e72-image.png

                    idefix37I 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • idefix37I
                      idefix37 Sailor Moderator @Migration
                      last edited by idefix37

                      @Migration
                      What you show is Geopotential heights at 500 hPa, expressed in dam = decameters (1 dam is 10 m). That has nothing to do with hPa units. Windy shows the same isolines but in meters (Windy does not show Geopot. heights in feet). At 500hPa the mean Geopotential height is about 5500m or 550dam. See the legend of the same ECMWF map:
                      https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/charts/catalogue/medium-z500-t850?facets=undefined&time=2020112000,0,2020112000&projection=classical_europe

                      You say that sailors don’t consider Geopotential heights? They should do it:
                      https://vos.noaa.gov/MWL/dec_08/milibar_chart.shtml

                      MigrationM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • MigrationM
                        Migration @idefix37 | Premium
                        last edited by

                        @idefix37 Thank you for the explanation. Now I understand!

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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