Mar 4, 2019
Vertical Velocity: Please. Picking locks is my specialty.
Vertical Velocity: [throws brick through window]
Vertical Velocity: Okay, let’s go!
X-Flight:
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Puerto Rico
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Venezuela
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
Vertical Velocity: Please. Picking locks is my specialty.
Vertical Velocity: [throws brick through window]
Vertical Velocity: Okay, let’s go!
X-Flight:
In projectile motion, which of the following is not constant?
The answer is vertical velocity (Quizlet).
Vertical Velocity
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V2 Vertical Velocity by official_coastercale
Vertical Velocity and Goliath, Six Flags Great America
Vertical Velocity
Some models like the HIRES and the RAP will output layers showing vertical velocity at different pressure layers. Today I was exploring how to best display this, and decided on a blended layer with a gradient like one you might see for radial velocity radar images (green/- to red/+). Here's a screenshot showing vertical velocity plotted along with the horizontal wind at 500mb.
It's interesting that you can see the effect terrain has on the vertical wind from this map. The Rocky Mountains pass along the Idaho/Montana border, causing orographic lifting of the air that is noticeable all the way up at 500mb (around 15k-20k feet above sea level depending on atmospheric conditions).
The patterns kind of look like spaghetti that is oriented perpendicular to the winds. This makes sense, because as the wind passes up a mountain range, you have positive vertical velocity. Likewise as the wind travels down along the back side of a mountain range, you'll see negative vertical velocity.
It's important to look at vertical velocity because it's a source of lift, which is one of the key ingredients of thunderstorm formation. If you know where lift is taking place, you'll have a reasonable hint at where you might find clouds or thunderstorms spawning off as well.
At lower levels you could probably use this tool to see gravity waves and other vertically-oriented atmospheric phenomena. I'll leave that for another day.
Vertical Velocity