UW Aircraft Contributes to International Wind and Turbulence Study |  
|
 |
March 9, 2006 -- The University of Wyoming's King Air research aircraft is participating in a major international study of atmospheric waves and turbulence that form near mountains, creating hazards to planes flying in the vicinity.
The aircraft, equipped with sophisticated meteorological instrumentation and a computer-directed data display system, already has begun flights in the two-month mission known as T-REX (Terrain-Induced Rotor Experiment), says Al Rodi, head of the Department of Atmospheric Science in the UW College of Engineering. The UW aircraft is funded through a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation as a national facility to serve the entire atmospheric science community.
An international research team of about 60 scientists, led by Vanda Grubisic of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nev., is probing treacherous whirlwinds, known as rotors, as they form above California's Sierra Nevada range.
"We are providing very detailed air motion sensing capabilities. The investigators are particularly interested in the wind structure that we observe with the radar on the aircraft," Rodi says. "The UW King Air is scheduled to fly a series of 25-30 flights totaling 100 hours, through the end of April."
The T-REX study also is the first major mission for a sophisticated NSF aircraft call HIAPER (High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research), operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. Other instrument systems probe wind rotors with radars, automated weather stations, wind profilers, and balloons.
The mission's primary objective is to understand the thermodynamics and dynamics of the rotor phenomenon. Additionally, there is an aviation component because some aircraft have crashed after getting caught in such turbulence. Rodi says the data may result in better forecasting techniques to warn pilots of the dangers. He points out the results also will improve aviation safety along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, where rotors are a common phenomenon.
Results from this project "should enable models to be more effective in forecasting turbulent conditions associated with mountain waves," says scientist Richard Dirks of NCAR.
The T-REX team includes veteran NCAR researcher Joachim Kuettner, who first explored the newly-discovered rotors in Germany in the 1930s with an open sailplane. Now 96, Kuettner is a principal investigator on T-REX. Rodi says Kuettner participated in a scientific study of rotors in the same region as T-REX during the 1950s.
"This is an example of redoing an experiment with modern technology, so they can see things much more accurately. The instruments were crude compared to today's aircraft instrumentation and numerical modeling tools," he says.
UW's King Air twin turboprop is used extensively in many of the Department of Atmospheric Science research projects to obtain on-site atmospheric measurements. The King Air has participated in a variety of projects worldwide, ranging from relatively small-scale investigations to large, multi-institutional collaborative efforts.
The five-person UW crew now supporting T-REX in Bishop, Calif., are Larry Oolman, scientist and T-REX project manager; Tom Drew, project pilot; Samuel Haimov, scientist supporting the on-board cloud radar; Brent Glover, master technician; Brett Spiker, aircraft mechanic; and Perry Wechsler, system engineer. Other atmospheric science department personnel who will rotate positions within the field for this unusually long field project are Jeff French, scientist and project manager; Kevin Fagerstrom and Don Cooksey, pilots; Dave Leon, radar scientist; Tom Pierce, aircraft mechanic; and Glenn Gordon and Don Lukens, technical support.
Photo
Sophisticated Flight -- The University of Wyoming's King Air research aircraft (pictured above) is participating in a major international study of atmospheric waves and turbulence that form near mountains, creating hazards to planes flying in the vicinity. (Courtesy Photo)
Posted on Thursday, March 09, 2006
|
