Reading aerological diagrams?

Question

Can anyone please explain to me, or link me to a website, how to read aerological diagrams? Thank you

Answer 1

Aerology is the study of the atmosphere. Not only for meteorological information (weather prediction) but for any scientific and environmental purpose. As opposed to meteorology, aerology cares about what is happening above the tropopause; the stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere. How to read diagrams? Since they are based on balloons readings, they show on the vertical axis the altitude and on the horizontal one, anything that is of interest: wind, temperature, ozone layer, etc. I am pretty sure that each curve is marked with its signification.

How to interpret it? Well, since I am only interested by meteorology (which I teach to student pilots) the temperature in altitude, up to the tropopause, is very interesting because it shows if the air above is stable (low adiabatic cooling) or unstable (high adiabatic cooling) and eventual inversion (warm air above cold one). That enables me to predict e.g. the probability to meet fog or cumulonimbus (Cb) that are not pleasant for light aircraft pilots.