ICAO Standard Atmosphere

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The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Standard Atmosphere gives the average values for meteorological element at 40°N from mean sea level (MSL) to 80km (262,500 ft).

The ICAO Standard Atmosphere does not contain water vapour

Some of the values defined by ICAO are:

ICAO Standard Atmosphere
Height km & ft Temperature °C Pressure hPa Lapse Rate °C/1000ft
0 km MSL 15.0 1013.25 1.98 (Tropospheric)
11 km 36,000 ft −56.5 226.00 0.00 (Stratospheric)
20 km 65,000 ft −56.5 54.70 −1.00 (Stratospheric)
32 km 105,000 ft −44.5 8.68

As this is a Standard, you will never encounter these conditions outside of a laboratory, but many Aviation standards and flying rules are based on this, altimetry being a major one. The standard is very useful in Meteorology for comparing actual values to.

Contents

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[edit] References

  • ICAO, Manual of the ICAO Standard Atmosphere (extended to 80 kilometres (262 500 feet)), Doc 7488-CD, Third Edition, 1993, ISBN 92-9194-004-6.