VISIBILITY

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VISIBILITY
Inmeteorology,visibilityis a measure of
thedistanceat which an object or light can be
clearly discerned. It is reported withinsurface
weather observations either
inmetersorstatute miles, depending upon the
country. Visibility affects all forms of traffic:
roads, sailing and aviation. Meteorological
visibility refers to transparency of air: in dark,
meteorological visibility is still the same as in
daylight for the same air.
In extremely clean air in Arctic or mountainous
areas, the visibility can be up to 70 kilometres
to 100 kilometres . However, visibility is often
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reduced
somewhat
byair
pollutionand
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VISIBILITY
Visibility can be reduced by liquid or solid
particles
in the air as in the following cases:
(a)Mist or fog
(b)Precipitation
(c) Spray
(d)Smoke
(e) Dust, volcanic ash, etc.
Visibility can therefore vary in different
directions.
Water vapour is a transparent gas and does not
reduce visibility.

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VISIBILITY

The main criteria for fog formation is watersaturated air. When air is saturated, the water
vapor turns into liquid water droplets in a process
called condensation. The two ways air can
become saturated are cooling the air to its
dewpoint temperature or evaporating moisture
into the air and increasing its water vapor
content.
The five most important factors for fog formation
are
1)long nightsduring colder months;
2)clear skiesand light winds;
3)moist air;
4) a low-level temperatureinversionand
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E T,
5) sufficient
supply
of
condensation
nuclei.
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VISIBILITY
the most common cause of fog iscoolingby
radiation, when 1) thegroundsurface radiates
heat and cools;
2) the layer ofair next to the surface iscooled by
contactwith the surface.
3) Asfogforms it radiates heat(condensation
heat) and thus becomes cooler. Eventually
4 ) gentle movement of air increasesmixingand
the fog will gradually become thicker reducing
visibilities to zero.
Fog is made of tiny liquid water droplets, light
weighted enough to remain suspended in the air.
Their average diameter is varying between
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Mlight
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0.01mm
and
0.1mm
and
causing
any
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VISIBILITY

The term fog is used when visibility reduces

to less than 1km and the relative humidity
exceeds 95%.
Whereasmistis reported when visibility
exceeds 1km.
Obscuration by dry
particles is defined
ashaze, which
must not be mixed up
with the popular,
but somewhat vague
term 'hazy skies'
describing high thin
clouds (often cirrus)
obscuring the sun.

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VISIBILITY
Types of fog :
Radiation or ground fog- in mountain areas
and cold pools often seen asvalley fog. Radiation
fog might be rather shallow over damp and wet
ground after a
rainy night.
During the night, land gives off its heat
very quickly. On clear nights, the
radiation of heat from the land surface
into space is quicker as it is
unobstructed by clouds. The air in contact with
the ground thus gets cooled and if cooled below
its dew point, a large quantity of dew is
deposited. If, however, a light breeze is blowing,
turbulence causes the cold from the
land
surface
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E T,

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VISIBILITY
Types of fog :
Radiation or ground fogThe visibility at eye level above this ground fog
may be good but, in the fog, it may be only a
couple of hundred metres or
less. If the wind is a bit stronger, radiation fog
may extend upto a height of about 150 metres or
so above the ground. Strong winds cause too
much turbulence, resulting in low clouds (stratus
type) and no fog.
Radiation fog, which can form over land only,
may drift on to rivers, harbours, lakes and other
coastal regions. For example: fog on the Thames
River, Dover Straits, the Sandheads of the
Hooghly, etc. Radiation fog reaches
its maximum
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E T,

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VISIBILITY
Types of fog :
Advection fog- is also calledsea fog, when
warm air flows over relatively cold sea surface,
but is just as common over land.
Wind causes advection fog to form and
also to spread. If the wind is quite strong,
turbulence causes advection fog to form
to considerable depth. However, very strong
winds carry the moisture too high, resulting in low
clouds (Stratus type) and no fog. Best examples
of advection fog are:
On the Grand Banks of New Foundland where
the warm, moist Westerlies, blowing over the
warm Gulf Stream, cross over the cold Labrador
Current.
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VISIBILITY
Types of fog :
Advection fog- I
The south coast of the UK in winter,
whenever SW winds blow. These
winds come from lower latitudes and
blow over the sea and are hence
warm and moist, compared to the cold land
surface.
The possible time of occurrence of advection
fog can sometimes be predicted by plotting the
temperature of the sea surface and the dew point
temperature of the air as two separate curves
against ship's time
Advection fog is often associated with the
passage of cold and warm fronts and
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VISIBILITY
Types of fog :
Sea smoke or river smoke.
Mainly caused by evaporation.
This type of fog is rather shallow
and lies generally below 10m in
height from the surface and is
locally restricted to places with
large temperature differences
with the air colder than the
water. When very cold, dry air passes over a
relatively warm sea surface, the water vapour,
evaporating from the sea surface, is quickly
condensed into water-droplets and it appears as if
vertical streaks of smoke are rising from the sea
surface. It is commonly seen in the
Ocean.
C Arctic
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Types of fog :
Smog is radiation fog mixed with industrial
smoke.
Smoke + Fog =Smog
It is a thick, black, oppressive blanket, which
not only wets all exposed surfaces but also makes
them black due to carbon particles in the smoke.
It is found in most big cities.

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VISIBILITY

Types of fog :
Hill fog or orographic fog: When a
wind comes against a mountain
range and begins to climb over it,
it progressively cools adiabatically.
After dew point is reached, any
further cooling causes the excess
moisture to condense into water
droplets forming hill fog or orographic fog

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