Analysis of fog and stratus cloudiness over the Pannonian Basin

Radiation fog occurs during an anticyclonic situation. Due to the intense night irradiation the ground is considerably cooled. A temperature inversion is forming, which disables mixing or convection. When the temperature is close to the dew point, fog can be formed. Based on this analysis we came to the following conclusions:

• A non-gradient field of atmospheric pressure disabled mixing of air layers at all heights and thus achieved a temperature low favorable for creating fog.
• The relatively dry air in the middle troposphere enabled strong irradiative cooling of the ground boundary layer.
• Small differences between the temperature and dew point temperature at 2 m height above the ground indicated the presence of fog.
• The analysis of vertical cross sections enables a closer insight into the processes which are taking place in the lower troposphere.
• Due to the lack of ground boundary layer parameterizations of atmosphere and soil, numerical models often do not accurately represent the processes in the lower troposphere. For a more detailed and precise analysis satellite observations should be used.
• Fog usually forms at night when the views of the visible spectrum are not available. As the ground temperature is close to the fog layer temperature, the infrared spectrum is similarly unhelpful. For that reason various RGB combinations of the radiation spectrum are used.