NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Corrections for refraction in deserts
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2006 Mar 5, 17:18 +0000
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2006 Mar 5, 17:18 +0000
I am off to the Libyan desert at the end of March to see the total eclipse which has its maximum period of totality in the Southern Sahara. I will then be spending a couple of weeks wandering around the South Eastern Libyan desert with a group looking at various natural wonders, and finishing off at Gebel Uweinat on the Libya Egypt border to see some Saharan rock art. The group will naturally have GPS receivers to keep them found, but that need not stop me using celestial navigation to plot our progress - and amuse the rest of the group showing them how it was done "in the old days"! Of course, due to the high temperatures (40 to 50 Centigrade) corrections will have to me made to the standard Altitude Correction tables. But it occurred to me that the Refraction Correction Tables for Non Standard Conditions in the Nautical Almanac may not be appropriate in the middle of the Sahara, where the hot sand will bake the air near the ground. Does anyone have any data on altitude corrections for desert conditions? Thanks Geoffrey Kolbe