Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2022
Microburst wind shear has caused or contributed to a significant number of aviation accidents. Si... more Microburst wind shear has caused or contributed to a significant number of aviation accidents. Since 1943, wind shear accidents have been responsible for more than 1,400 fatalities worldwide, including over 400 deaths in the United States between 1973 and 1985. In this paper, we describe one of the more successful and societally impactful research-to-operations (R2O) programs in atmospheric science history. The remarkable R2O journey included the discovery of microburst wind shear in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the scientific efforts to understand this phenomenon and its impact on aircraft operations, the development of a wind shear training program for pilots, and the rapid development, testing, and implementation of wind shear detection systems that successfully saved lives and property. The article includes a chronological description of the wind shear research and development program, key milestones toward implementation, and the research-to-operations best practices employed for successful technology transfer.
ABSTRACT The Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) observation network used at an airport in Denve... more ABSTRACT The Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) observation network used at an airport in Denver, CO consisted of one S-band and two C-band radars, together with 27 Portable Automated Mesonet (PAM) stations. Each of the three microburst case studies observed during the JAWS experiment occurred within the surface PAM network, and these surface data were compared with the radar analyses. It emerges that if microburst vertical motions are to be accurately resolved, the spacing of the surface stations must be considerably less than 4 km.
ABSTRACT The Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) observation network used at an airport in Denve... more ABSTRACT The Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) observation network used at an airport in Denver, CO consisted of one S-band and two C-band radars, together with 27 Portable Automated Mesonet (PAM) stations. Each of the three microburst case studies observed during the JAWS experiment occurred within the surface PAM network, and these surface data were compared with the radar analyses. It emerges that if microburst vertical motions are to be accurately resolved, the spacing of the surface stations must be considerably less than 4 km.
Detection and inflight display of oceanic convective storms is needed to ensure safe and efficien... more Detection and inflight display of oceanic convective storms is needed to ensure safe and efficient routing of transoceanic aircraft across vast reaches of oceanic air space. The Convective Diagnosis Oceanic (CDO) algorithm was first devised within the Federal Aviation Administration Aviation Weather Research Program (FAA AWRP) as part of the Oceanic Weather Product Development Team (OW PDT; Herzegh et al. 2000) in the early 2000’s. At that time, the CDO only used satellite-based inputs to make a determination of the location of convective hazards (Kessinger et al. 2008; Kessinger et al. 2010). This early version of the CDO algorithm was validated using the NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) low earth orbit satellite and found to have good performance at detecting hazardous convection over both oceanic and continental regions (Donovan et al. 2008; Donovan et al. 2009). Since these early years, the CDO algorithm has undergone modifications that have enhanced the detection...
Microburst wind shear has caused or contributed to a significant number of aviation accidents. Si... more Microburst wind shear has caused or contributed to a significant number of aviation accidents. Since 1943, wind shear accidents have been responsible for more than 1,400 fatalities worldwide, including over 400 deaths in the United States between 1973 and 1985. In this paper, we describe one of the more successful and societally impactful research-to-operations (R2O) programs in atmospheric science history. The remarkable R2O journey included the discovery of microburst wind shear in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the scientific efforts to understand this phenomenon and its impact on aircraft operations, the development of a wind shear training program for pilots, and the rapid development, testing, and implementation of wind shear detection systems that successfully saved lives and property. The article includes a chronological description of the wind shear research and development program, key milestones toward implementation, and the research-to-operations best practices employe...
Volcanic ash poses a serious threat to aircraft avionics due to the corrosive nature of the silic... more Volcanic ash poses a serious threat to aircraft avionics due to the corrosive nature of the silicate particles. Aircraft encounters with ash have resulted in millions of dollars in damage and loss of power to aircraft engines. Accurate detection of volcanic ash for the purpose of avoiding these hazardous areas is of the utmost importance to ensure aviation safety as
On June 2-25, 1999, an observational field program in the vicinity of Greeley, CO was conducted b... more On June 2-25, 1999, an observational field program in the vicinity of Greeley, CO was conducted by the NASA Aviation Safety Program (AvSP) with the goal of mapping turbulence location and intensities within convective clouds to features observable to Doppler radars. This field program was called the Turbulence Characterization and Detection (TCAD) field program. Three cloud penetrating aircraft (two equipped with onboard, forward-pointing Doppler radar), two groundbased Doppler radars, and a mobile’sounding van participated in the experiment. Preliminary analyses of the data are presented to show the utility of on-board Doppler radar to detect and classify in-cloud turbulence.
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2022
Microburst wind shear has caused or contributed to a significant number of aviation accidents. Si... more Microburst wind shear has caused or contributed to a significant number of aviation accidents. Since 1943, wind shear accidents have been responsible for more than 1,400 fatalities worldwide, including over 400 deaths in the United States between 1973 and 1985. In this paper, we describe one of the more successful and societally impactful research-to-operations (R2O) programs in atmospheric science history. The remarkable R2O journey included the discovery of microburst wind shear in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the scientific efforts to understand this phenomenon and its impact on aircraft operations, the development of a wind shear training program for pilots, and the rapid development, testing, and implementation of wind shear detection systems that successfully saved lives and property. The article includes a chronological description of the wind shear research and development program, key milestones toward implementation, and the research-to-operations best practices employed for successful technology transfer.
ABSTRACT The Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) observation network used at an airport in Denve... more ABSTRACT The Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) observation network used at an airport in Denver, CO consisted of one S-band and two C-band radars, together with 27 Portable Automated Mesonet (PAM) stations. Each of the three microburst case studies observed during the JAWS experiment occurred within the surface PAM network, and these surface data were compared with the radar analyses. It emerges that if microburst vertical motions are to be accurately resolved, the spacing of the surface stations must be considerably less than 4 km.
ABSTRACT The Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) observation network used at an airport in Denve... more ABSTRACT The Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) observation network used at an airport in Denver, CO consisted of one S-band and two C-band radars, together with 27 Portable Automated Mesonet (PAM) stations. Each of the three microburst case studies observed during the JAWS experiment occurred within the surface PAM network, and these surface data were compared with the radar analyses. It emerges that if microburst vertical motions are to be accurately resolved, the spacing of the surface stations must be considerably less than 4 km.
Detection and inflight display of oceanic convective storms is needed to ensure safe and efficien... more Detection and inflight display of oceanic convective storms is needed to ensure safe and efficient routing of transoceanic aircraft across vast reaches of oceanic air space. The Convective Diagnosis Oceanic (CDO) algorithm was first devised within the Federal Aviation Administration Aviation Weather Research Program (FAA AWRP) as part of the Oceanic Weather Product Development Team (OW PDT; Herzegh et al. 2000) in the early 2000’s. At that time, the CDO only used satellite-based inputs to make a determination of the location of convective hazards (Kessinger et al. 2008; Kessinger et al. 2010). This early version of the CDO algorithm was validated using the NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) low earth orbit satellite and found to have good performance at detecting hazardous convection over both oceanic and continental regions (Donovan et al. 2008; Donovan et al. 2009). Since these early years, the CDO algorithm has undergone modifications that have enhanced the detection...
Microburst wind shear has caused or contributed to a significant number of aviation accidents. Si... more Microburst wind shear has caused or contributed to a significant number of aviation accidents. Since 1943, wind shear accidents have been responsible for more than 1,400 fatalities worldwide, including over 400 deaths in the United States between 1973 and 1985. In this paper, we describe one of the more successful and societally impactful research-to-operations (R2O) programs in atmospheric science history. The remarkable R2O journey included the discovery of microburst wind shear in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the scientific efforts to understand this phenomenon and its impact on aircraft operations, the development of a wind shear training program for pilots, and the rapid development, testing, and implementation of wind shear detection systems that successfully saved lives and property. The article includes a chronological description of the wind shear research and development program, key milestones toward implementation, and the research-to-operations best practices employe...
Volcanic ash poses a serious threat to aircraft avionics due to the corrosive nature of the silic... more Volcanic ash poses a serious threat to aircraft avionics due to the corrosive nature of the silicate particles. Aircraft encounters with ash have resulted in millions of dollars in damage and loss of power to aircraft engines. Accurate detection of volcanic ash for the purpose of avoiding these hazardous areas is of the utmost importance to ensure aviation safety as
On June 2-25, 1999, an observational field program in the vicinity of Greeley, CO was conducted b... more On June 2-25, 1999, an observational field program in the vicinity of Greeley, CO was conducted by the NASA Aviation Safety Program (AvSP) with the goal of mapping turbulence location and intensities within convective clouds to features observable to Doppler radars. This field program was called the Turbulence Characterization and Detection (TCAD) field program. Three cloud penetrating aircraft (two equipped with onboard, forward-pointing Doppler radar), two groundbased Doppler radars, and a mobile’sounding van participated in the experiment. Preliminary analyses of the data are presented to show the utility of on-board Doppler radar to detect and classify in-cloud turbulence.
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