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:
  • Visibility
  • Airport runways
  • Airports
  • Evaluation
  • Visibility
  • Runways (Aeronautics)
  • Airports
  • Evaluation
• 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).
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9476/dot_9476_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 116.96 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:53b0ea17a7b4a2c75c105c762514e4321883e45abeb601f144ec1acddb44f5bb