Winds Aloft - Realistic wind speeds and directions above surface level

[Sl1ck]

Good day all,

After having implemented moving clouds (which are fantastic by the way) I realised they do not move unless of course there is wind.

It then dawned on me that most of my experience in DCS is without wind.

At best some servers / mission makers add some surface wind but the upper atmosphere winds are often left at 0 as is the default in the mission editor.

Due to Coriolis effect and Surface friction, In the Northern hemisphere a surface wind of 5kts from the North would equate (on average) to the wind at 18000 feet being 44kts from the East and continue to increase in strength the further up you go. Less so in direction as above 18000 feet (on average) we are in free moving air.

"Southern hemisphere would be 44kts from the west"

 

My suggestion would be that even with 0 wind on the surface or 1kt from the North, that some wind be in as a default in the upper levels Exactly as MSFS does.

A good feature would be that when a surface wind is entered that the remaining higher levels are auto-populated in accordance with known averages in meteorology.

Of course in the real world there are many more variables, but we can start with International standard atmosphere and averages.

 

Also not sure how the weapons would cope, and if DLZ's and CCRP's etc would continue to be accurate.

 

Regards

 

 

[Sl1ck]

Attached is a realistic example of what you would expect to see happen in the real world.

Wind is 10kts initially straight down the runway at Dubai RWY 30L/R

1600ft is greyed out annoyingly, the difference in wind direction between surface and 1600feet can be quite large. 

All numbers used are real basic averages from the charts mentioned previously.

Of course in real life, atmospherics are incredibly dynamic.


This certainly beats flying around in 0 wind. At least from a realism perspective.

Wind example.trk

Edited November 3, 2022 by Sl1ck

[Exorcet]

On 10/30/2022 at 6:45 PM, Sl1ck said:

My suggestion would be that even with 0 wind on the surface or 1kt from the North, that some wind be in as a default in the upper levels Exactly as MSFS does.

 

 

We should retain the ability to have 0 wind everywhere, but other sure an option for realistic wind is fine.

[Sl1ck]

Absolutely agree to default to zero.

 

But have more realistic options.

[AG-51_Razor]

I believe that ED should allow the Mission Builder to decide what velocity and direction the wind is blowing for every level that is available to make changes to. The surface wind does not mathmatically determine the wind at any level above by some formula. It's actually the other way around but there are so many variables that even today meteoroligists are hard pressed to give an accurate forecast of what the winds/weather will be just a couple of hours from now! Let the Mission Builder decide.

[oreste]

Very interesting this thing, at this point a high altitude flight that would normally be convenient to save fuel could become inconvenient due to the winds and force you to descend. Or in this case the weapons of the CBU 105 type with wind correction would become more 'appreciated despite they cost a bit more ^^

[Whirley]

+1