A Review on Weather Impact on Aviation Operations: Visibility, Wind, Precipitation, Icing

Abstract


 
 
 
 Meteorological conditions affect aviation, marine, and land transportation, and play an important role in aviation accidents and operations. Wind (Uh), visibility (Vis), and Precipitation rate and amount (PR and PA) are the most important meteorological parameters that affect the terminal weather and in- flight conditions. Weather is considered a causal factor in about 30% of all US aviation accidents (NASA, 1999). Fatal aviation accidents based on the NTSB data related to ceiling, fog, and wind are estimated at 20%, 14%, and 10%, correspondingly. Knowing weather conditions can help to improve operational planning, including fuel consumption and people safety. Wind shear and gust, and turbulence need to be measured or predicted for the flight route and airport terminal weather. In addition, low Vis and ceiling are the second most important weather events affecting aviation operations. Lastly, precipitation type, rate and amount are the third important group of parameters that severely affect the flight operations such as de-icing. Earlier analysis of these events suggested that the meteorological conditions need to be studied in detail to better predict and monitor weather conditions for operational needs. In this respect, both observations quality and numerical weather predictions model simulations should be improved, and both new technologies and statistical models such as machine learning and artificial intelligence analysis should be developed for the aviation operations.
 
 
 

Standing Watch: Baselining Predictable Events That Influence Maritime Operations in the Context of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

“…Several studies on airport conditions suggest such a framework may be beneficial when examining regional airport networks. Each discussed weather conditions, but there has yet to be an attempt to classify them into a single matrix that accounted for the totality of delays mentioned by Kulesa [97][98][99][100]. Weather conditions influence highway and rail transportation or can be "multimodal", for example, when planning an emergency response for an island state where airports and ocean ports may be affected, although in a different manner, by predictable events.…”