Graphical Abstract

• Tweet

Yoshino, K., 2019: Low-level wind shear induced by horizontal roll vortices at Narita International Airport, Japan. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 97, 403-421.
https://doi.org/10.2151/jmsj.2019-023   Graphical Abstract with highlights

Plain Language Summary: Aircraft making landing and takeoff at Narita International Airport in Japan frequently report low-level wind shear (LLWS) with turbulence when the prevailing wind is southwesterly, which is crosswind to the runway direction. This study used observational data by a landing aircraft at the runway 16R and a single-Doppler lidar to demonstrate the existence and structure of horizontal roll vortices (HRVs) causing the LLWS encountered by the aircraft.

• Original PDF

Highlights:

• A single-Doppler lidar detected various features of the HRVs such as high-speed wind bands, cross-roll flows (CRFs) perpendicular to the roll axes, and bands of Doppler spectrum width (DSW) minimum.
• The CRFs formed the LLWS in the scale of about 400m between the runway threshold and the touch down point.
• The bands of DSW minimum with high-speed wind may be used as indicators of downdrafts in the HRVs since the downdrafts transport less turbulent air with large momentum of the low-level jet in the upper convective mixed layer.