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Old June 15th 18, 09:46 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Virtual parcel in Skysight Skew-T diagram

On Friday, June 15, 2018 at 7:11:56 PM UTC+2, wrote:
Hi
What information do you get from the virtual parcel (the moving dashed lines) on the Skew T diagram on Skysight ?
Dan


It shows you CAPE -"the area between the virtual temperature trace of the pseudo-adiabatically lifted air-parcel and the virtual temperature trace of the environment from the LFC to the LNB in which the parcel's virtual temperature is greater than the environment's (positive CAPE connotes convective development)."
This page explains it well: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/sfctest/help/sfcoa.html

The philosophy behind SkySight is that you shouldn't need to understand how to read a SkewT - all the information there is presented elsewhere. SkewT's are just provided because, well, lots of people who do know how to read them, like to read them.

Matthew