Microbursts as an aviation wind shear hazard

Abstract

The downburst-related accidents or near-misses of jet aircraft have been occurring at the rate of once or twice a year since 1975. A microburst with its field comparable to the length of runways can induce a wind shear which endangers landing or liftoff aircraft; the latest near miss landing of a 727 aircraft at Atlanta, Ga. in 1979 indicated that some microbursts are too small to trigger the warning device of the anemometer network at major U.S. airports. The nature of microbursts and their possible detection by Doppler radar are discussed, along with proposed studies of small-scale microbursts.