Visibility Variability at Seattle, WA and Portland, OR : Insights into the Impacts of Runway Visual Range (RVR) Measurements on Aviation Operations.

Details

• Creators:
  Seliga, Thomas A. ; Hazen, David ; Jacobs, Leo ; Lawrence, Deborah B.
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.) ; System Resources Corporation ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Airport Runways Airports Evaluation Runways (Aeronautics) Visibility
• Resource Type:
  Proceedings
• Geographical Coverage:
  Seattle (Washington) ; Portland (Oregon)
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration
• Abstract:
  The FAA's new generation Runway Visual Range (RVR)
  
  system was first placed into service in 1994 at several
  
  key airports in the United States. During the last three
  
  years, the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
  
  has monitored RVR data on behalf of the FAA from a
  
  number of airports as part of a program to assess the
  
  performance of these systems. This paper utilizes data
  
  collected on RVR at airports in Seattle, WA and Portland,
  
  OR in order to establish the variability of Category I, II
  
  and III conditions at these sites as a function of time of
  
  year and time of day. The findings provide important
  
  insights into both the similarities and differences in RVR
  
  that occur at these two airports. The most severe RVR
  
  conditions tend to occur during the same periods of the
  
  year, starting in late summer and ending around mid-
  
  January of the next year. The variability in RVR values
  
  are shown to depend on the time of day; the most
  
  prevalent times for Cat II and III events begin in the
  
  late evening and extend on through to around 11:00 am
  
  LST of the next day. The greatest amount of time in Cat
  
  II and III conditions occurs from around 5:00 am to
  
  10:00 am. There is also an important tendency for these
  
  RVR events to occur in sequences that last for several
  
  consecutive days. Although Seattle and Portland are
  
  both in the Pacific Northwest and experience similar
  
  weather conditions, the periods when Cat II and III
  
  conditions occur at these sites do not generally coincide.
  
  This is attributed to the location of Pacific storm tracks
  
  relative to the location of the airports. The insights
  
  obtained from this and similar analyses of RVR data
  
  should prove valuable for airline planning and lead to
  
  more effective control of traffic at these airports and
  
  throughout the National Airspace System (NAS).
  
  
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:53b0ea17a7b4a2c75c105c762514e4321883e45abeb601f144ec1acddb44f5bb
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9476/dot_9476_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 116.96 KB ]