The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), specifically the Research Applications Program (RAP), will be involved in the creation of an Operational Windshear Warning System for the New Hong Kong international airport on the island of Chek Lap Kok (CLK). This island lies about a kilomete... Show moreThe National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), specifically the Research Applications Program (RAP), will be involved in the creation of an Operational Windshear Warning System for the New Hong Kong international airport on the island of Chek Lap Kok (CLK). This island lies about a kilometer to the northwest of Lantau Island. Since prevailing winds are generally south-easterly, the new airport may be susceptible to terrain-induced turbulence. Past studies show that terrain induced turbulence is expected to be a major problem for aircraft operation. This problem may warrant closing the airport during rare, severe turbulent episodes. This paper analyzes certain wind variables in relation to the amount of wind turbulence that was observed at various sites on Lantau Island. Raw data taken at one minute intervals was retrieved from AWS (Automated Weather Station) files. The measured variables' corresponding to these minute observations include the wind variance, wind speed, and wind direction. The wind speed standard deviation and wind direction standard deviation were also computed and analyzed over the one minute intervals. Variables that were computed in post processing analysis include the variance, mean wind speed, mean wind direction and the mean u and v wind components. These variables were calculated over an hour. Analysis ofthis data involved the examination of sudden changes of wind speed, direction, or variance at a given site and between each of the sites. The purpose of this was to look for possible future predictors of turbulence at the airport site, given measurements at the sites on Lantau Island. As a result of the analysis, there, appeared to be similarities between the CLK graph and Peak West graph. There were also similarities between Sha Lo Wan (SLW) and Peak West. It was originally concluded, after the analysis of the June 8 data, that changes in wind direction had an affect on wind turbulence. This theory was revised after analyzing June 7 data, which was almost totally opposite to the changes that had occurred on June 8 at each of the sites. Therefore, no solid conclusions were made. Show less
