Atmosphere module

The atmosphere modeled by scikit-aero follows the U.S. Committee on Extension to the Standard Atmosphere (COESA), also known as U.S Standard Atmosphere 1976.

This atmosphere rotates with the Earth. The air is assumed to follow all the laws for perfect gas and the hydrostatics equations. Therefore a realation between temperature, pressure and density can be stablished with geopotential.

COESA model, based on the U.S. 1976 Standard Atmosphere.

skaero.atmosphere.coesa.density(x, kind='geopotential')

Computes air mass density for a given altitude using the U.S. standar atmosphere model.

Parameters
  • x (array_like) – Geopotential or geometric altitude (depending on kind) given in meters.

  • kind (str) – Specifies the kind of interpolation as altitude x (‘geopotential’ or ‘geometric’). Default is ‘geopotential’

Returns

rho – Density in kilograms per cubic meter.

Return type

array_like

Note

Based on the U.S. 1976 Standard Atmosphere.

skaero.atmosphere.coesa.pressure(x, kind='geopotential')

Computes absolute pressure for a given altitude using the U.S. standard atmosphere model.

Parameters
  • x (array_like) – Geopotential or geometric altitude (depending on kind) given in meters.

  • kind (str) – Specifies the kind of interpolation as altitude x (‘geopotential’ or ‘geometric’). Default is ‘geopotential’

Returns

P – Pressure in Pascal.

Return type

array_like

Note

Based on the U.S. 1976 Standard Atmosphere.

skaero.atmosphere.coesa.table(x, kind='geopotential')

Computes table of COESA atmosphere properties.

Returns temperature, pressure and density COESA values at the given altitude.

Parameters
  • x (array_like) – Geopotential or geometric altitude (depending on kind) given in meters.

  • kind (str) – Specifies the kind of interpolation as altitude x (‘geopotential’ or ‘geometric’). Default is ‘geopotential’

Returns

  • h (array_like) – Given geopotential altitude in meters.

  • T (array_like) – Temperature in Kelvin.

  • p (array_like) – Pressure in Pascal.

  • rho (array_like) – Density in kilograms per cubic meter.

Note

Based on the U.S. 1976 Standard Atmosphere.

skaero.atmosphere.coesa.temperature(x, kind='geopotential')

Computes air temperature for a given altitude using the U.S. standard atmosphere model

Parameters
  • x (array_like) – Geopotential or geometric altitude (depending on kind) given in meters.

  • kind (str) – Specifies the kind of interpolation as altitude x (‘geopotential’ or ‘geometric’). Default is ‘geopotential’

Returns

T – Temperature in Kelvin.

Return type

array_like

Note

Based on the U.S. 1976 Standard Atmosphere.