Understanding and Detecting Wind Shear
Understanding and Detecting Wind Shear
Between 1970 and 1994, a number of flights during takeoff and landing were forced to the ground by invisible, violent “downbursts.” Pilots were literally blindsided by these deadly wind-shear events. During that time, wind shear resulted in 570 fatalities in the U.S.
The Low-Level Windshear Alert System (LLWAS)
In the 1980s, scientists and engineers from NCAR and academia, with support from the federal government, developed and conducted a research project dedicated to understanding this deadly phenomena. Based on wind-shear research studies such as the Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS), NCAR scientists and engineers developed two wind-shear detection systems that have been deployed throughout the USA and world, coined the Low-Level Windshear Alert System (LLWAS) and in collaboration with MIT-LL, the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR).
Since the full deployment of ground-based systems like LLWAS and Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR), coupled with improved pilot training and onboard warning systems, there have been no commercial wind shear-caused airline crashes in the United States for over 25 years.