mikearuba

On weather radars we can tilt to see weather above and below our nose. But when ATC is reporting weather, are they precip at all altitudes (ie altitude unknown) or is there only a band of altitude that the radomes can actually "see"? I know radomes can tilt too, but would like to know the limitations in them actually being able to give me an altitude to "avoid"

Also, when there is precip showing up on XM WX, how do you know where the bottoms and tops are?

thanks guys!

Edit: im about to go flying in xm weather airplane and there is this mass moving in near the departure end. Would like to know if possible in real time if I can climb above it or stay below by knowing where it is exactly.

EasternATC

ATC radars do not have any ability to determine the height of precipitation.

atooraya

I believe they just call out what they see on Doppler Radar, which has no altitude read out.

If you're using XM Weather, when I flew planes with G1000 and XM weather, it would give you tops and bottoms of the cells on the display.

The weather radar on airplanes can't really measure the tops either, just intensity of precipitation. So if you're painting anything beyond green with radar tilted up, you'll want to avoid it when at your altitude. If you're trying to "climb" above it, it's safer to just fly around the cell, instead of trying to top it. If you are flying around in an area where it's just raining, and it shows green everywhere, you should be okay with flying through it, as there isn't much convection in just a steady precipitation cell, as opposed to thunderstorm cells

N9373M

I think they just parrot what's in the SIGMET - tops to XXX thousand.

Bubba

In the Centers, there are weather filters for altitude, I seem to remember that there were 3 filter levels, like surface to FL240, FL240-FL330, and FL330 and above... Don't know about the terminal guys... Be careful with the XM weather, the presentation can be delayed up to 6 minutes and is not a realtime weather display... Weather displayed on XM can be ancient history on a fast moving weather system.

Ewfflyer

If you are using xm for close range, or in the vicinity of the airport, then you are asking for trouble. It's a great tool when you have distance to cover and time to see and avoid.

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Outlaw2097

A quick call to Flight Watch can get you more info than just the airmets and sigmets...122.0 for those keeping score at home.

Theres a reason FSS is still around...ATCers are not weather people.