Citation

Vorobyeva O, Nechaj P, Gaál L. Transp. Res. Proc. 2019; 43: 199-208.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publications)

DOI

10.1016/j.trpro.2019.12.034

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Low level wind shear is a hazardous meteorological phenomena that may seriously threaten the safety of the aircraft during the phase of landing and take-off. Automated, lidar-based systems for wind shear detection and alerting offer indispensable help to pilots to avoid landing in risky weather circumstances. Due to the efforts of the company MicroStep-MIS, the Bratislava Airport is one of the few (~15) airports worldwide and the first in Central Europe that has been equipped with a Doppler lidar. This remote sensing tool monitors the surrounding air space in a circle with a radius of 6‒7 km with high temporal and spatial resolutions (~100 m horizontally, scan frequency: 2 minutes). The elevation angle of the lidar's laser beam is set to a constant of 3°, which corresponds to the angle of the glide path of the landing aircraft. In the current paper, we focus on a selected weather event that occurred on July 5th, 2018. It was a cold front that passed over the airport area, and showed several significant and abrupt changes in the wind field during its short existence (~2.5 hours). We further analyze the situation from the perspective of the meteorological radar, installed in the neighborhood of the airport, and estimate the low level wind shear according to the requirements of the ICAO.

Language: en

Keywords

aviation; Bratislava; front passage; lidar; Little Carpathians; low level wind shear; wind direction; wind speed