Wind altitudes - AGL or MSL?

anrewlivingston

I assume that the increments for wind altitudes labeled for FL100+ are all MSL, but are the lower increments in AGL?

TZ

@anrewlivingston Basic wind layer is 10m AGL, second layer is 100m AGL.
Higher wind layers are bound with pressure levels. It means that the layer does not lie in one altitude, but it is on isobaric surface. E.g. 850 wind layer describes wind at altitude where pressure is 850hPa. In the layer selector control there is also altitude hint, but it is only approximate value and (back to your question) it is AMSL for all layers.

anrewlivingston

Ok, so in Kansas, the altitude layer at 850hPA roughly equates to 5,000 feet MSL.

Only counter-intuitive bit happens with some obvious extreme examples. Take Pike's Peak in Colorado for instance. The surface is ~14,000 adjusted for whatever pressure altitude, which is well above the 5000 msl value. Same for Denver, right? Should I use the 5,000+ in lieu of the surface?

Thanks for the reply!