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PPL · EASA 050 · Clouds and fog
The conditions for radiation fog
Which conditions are most likely to produce radiation fog over an airfield?
Explanation
Radiation fog forms when the ground loses its heat at night and cools the air in contact with it below its dew point. Three things must come together: a clear sky so the heat can escape, moist air so a little cooling reaches the dew point, and a light wind that keeps the tiny droplets in the air and spreads the cooling through the lowest layer.
Step by step
- Clear sky: the ground radiates its heat away and cools the air above it.
- Moist air: a small spread between temperature and dew point.
- Light wind of 2 to 8 kt: with no wind you get dew on the ground instead, with a strong wind the air is mixed with warmer air from above.
Why not the other answers
- Cloud keeps the heat in: under an overcast sky the ground does not cool enough. With no wind at all, the moisture would settle on the ground as dew rather than form fog.
- A wind of 15 to 20 kt mixes the cooled air near the ground with warmer air from above, so radiation fog does not form; at most you get low stratus.
- Warm, moist air moving over a colder surface gives advection fog. It can form by day or night, with a stronger wind, and is common along coasts.
Tip. Radiation fog is most likely in autumn and winter under a high pressure system, and is often thickest just after sunrise. It clears as the sun warms the ground, sometimes lifting first into low stratus.
Original questions written by FlightDesk Aero and aligned with the EASA syllabus. They are not questions from the official EASA exam bank.