Hazard assessment and cockpit presentation issues for microburst alerting systems

Abstract

Issues pertaining to the development of an alerting system for microbursts in the terminal area are studied. A methodology for evaluating microburst hazard criteria is developed on the basis of batch aircraft flight simulations. A preliminary evaluation of a selected set of hazard criteria is performed. The results indicate that the total headwind change along the aircraft flight path ('total divergence') does not correlate well with the approach degradation caused by microbursts. A preliminary piloted simulator study on cockpit presentation of wind shear alerts in verbal, alphanumeric, and graphical formats is performed. Graphical alerts were found to produce better decision-making and lower crew workload, and to be greatly preferred by pilots. Alphanumeric alerts were not well liked and exhibited no advantages over standard verbal radio communications.