Windshear at São Paulo International Airport: Observational and Modeling Aspects

Abstract

This work aims to approach the concepts and effects of windshear on the aircraft and to verify the efficiency of the WRF atmospheric model to simulate this phenomenon. The study is divided into two parts: observational and computational simulation. The first is to identify, through quantitative studies, the occurrence of such events in the vicinity of São Paulo International Airport at Guarulhos, using wind profile data obtained by the SODAR (SOnic Detection And Ranging) meteorological instruments, from January 1, 2016, up to June 9, 2017. Wind speed and direction data obtained from the surface up to 520 m (approximately 1700 ft) above the ground were used, and a statistical analysis was made of this information. The second part consisted in reproducing the occurrences of wind shear at the airport in question through 4 computational experiments by the WRF model, in order to reproduce a model for operational forecasting. The results obtained were closer to the observational ones in 2 of them, which were efficient to predict the occurrence of the windshear to the lower height levels, with approximate anticipation of 11 to 13 h.

Keywords:
windshear; GRU Airport; SODAR; WRF