Publications
SFO marine stratus forecast system documentation
Summary
Summary
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) experiences frequent low ceiling conditions during the summer season due to marine stratus clouds. Stratus in the approach zone prevents dual approaches to the airport??s closely spaced parallel runways, effectively reducing arrival capacity by half. The stratus typically behaves on a daily cycle, with dissipation...
Advanced aviation weather forecasts
Summary
Summary
The U.S. air transportation system faces a continuously growing gap between the demand for air transportation and the capacity to meet that demand. Two key obstacles to bridging this gap are traffic delays due to en route severe-weather conditions and airport weather conditions. Lincoln Laboratory has been addressing these traffic...
Upgrade and technology transfer of the San Francisco Marine Stratus Forecast system to the National Weather Service
Summary
Summary
The local airspace surrounding the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is prone to regular occurrences of low ceiling conditions from May through October due to the intrusion of marine stratus along the Pacific coast. The low cloud conditions prohibit dual parallel landings of aircraft to the airport's closely spaced parallel...
A characterization of NWP ceiling and visibility forecasts for the terminal airspace
Summary
Summary
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is sponsoring a Terminal Ceiling and Visibility (C&V) initiative to provide automated C&V guidance to the air traffic managers for both tactical (0-2 hour) and strategic (3-12 hour) decision making. To meet these requirements, particularly in the strategic time frame, it will most likely be...
Terminal ceiling & visibility product development for northeast airports
Summary
Summary
Within the FAA Aviation Weather Research Program (AWRP), the Terminal Ceiling and Visibility Product Development Team (TC&V PDT) is responsible for development of forecast guidance products to mitigate the loss of terminal operating capacity associated with low ceiling and visibility restrictions. In particular, accurate anticipation of the onset and cessation...
Advanced terminal weather products demonstration in New York
Summary
Summary
Weather continues to be a significant source of delay for aircraft destined to and departing from the New York metropolitan area, with weather delays through the first half of 2004 reaching levels not seen since 2000. In Allan et al. (2001), it was shown that total arrival delays on days...
The 2001 demonstration of automated cloud forecast guidance products for San Francisco International Airport
Summary
Summary
A system for providing cloud prediction guidance to aviation weather forecasters was demonstrated during the summer of 2001. The system was sponsored by the FAA, and developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory in collaboration with SJSU, the University of Quebec at Montreal, Penn State University, and the Central Weather Service Unit...
Forecast aids to lessen the impact of marine stratus on San Francisco International Airport
Summary
Summary
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is unable to use independent parallel approaches to its closely-spaced parallel runways when marine stratus is present in the approach. Delay programs are imposed to regulate the flow of traffic to match the true arrival capacity of the airport. Failure to forecast accurately the times...
The Marine Stratus Initiative at San Francisco International Airport
Summary
Summary
San Francisco International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the United States and one of the highest delay airports in terms of total aircraft delay hours and number of imposed air traffic delay programs. As with most airports, weather is the primary cause of aircraft delay. In particular...
An automated method for low level wind shear alert system (LLWAS) data quality analysis
Summary
Summary
The Low Level Windshear Alert System (LLWAS) is an anemometer-based surface network used for detection of hazardous wind shear and acquisition of operational wind information in the airport terminal area. The quality of wind data provided by the LLWAS anemometers is important for the proper performance of the LLWAS wind...