Glider flight in the lower stratosphere above cumulonimbus clouds
Authors
T. Bradbury
The City College of the City University of New York
Keywords:
Meteorology, Atmospheric physics
Abstract
On 9 May1972, M. Field, flying an 18-m span glider, climbed to nearly 8,700 m in a cumulonimbus cloud between Swinden and Oxford. He then flew upwind out of the cloud and climbed in wave lift to 12,960 m, about 4 km above the tropopause. Radar observations showed no sign of lee waves in the troposphere below 6 km and it appears that the high level waves used by the glider were caused by the convective clouds extending up into a layer of strong winds near the tropopause.
Author Biography
T. Bradbury, The City College of the City University of New York
