Mountain Wave Project

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The Mountain Wave Project (MWP) is used for global scientific research into atmospheric gravity waves and induced turbulence. New findings are used for record and altitude soaring flights as well as in the context of pilot training - as a contribution to increasing flight safety.

history

motivation

With the Mountain Wave Project in 1998, the pilots Klaus Ohlmann and Rene Heise started a program for the worldwide cataloging and investigation of air currents and turbulence that trigger strong winds (including foehn , Mistral , Zonda ) on and over mountains. This often results in wave movements that reach into the stratosphere , so-called leeward or mountain waves , to which the initiative owes its name. The MWP is an independent non-profit project of the scientific and meteorological section of the Organization Scientifique et Technique Internationale du Vol à Voile (OSTIV) and is supported by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).

Originally motivated to better understand the complex thermal and dynamic processes in the atmosphere and thus to give new impulses to long-distance gliding, the two pilots soon recognized that the extremely strong vertical air movements of the Mountain Waves represent a potential hazard for all areas of aviation. The focus of the MWP thus shifted to a more scientific approach to the flow phenomena. The core team became more powerful through the participation of other scientists and cooperation partners. The inclusion of Jörg Hacker from Airborne Research Australia (ARA) in the core team brought additional specific specialist knowledge to the project.

Aircraft-based measurement campaigns

In order to gain a better understanding of the relevant physical processes in the atmosphere, MWP expeditions to the Argentine Andes were carried out in 1999 and 2006 . A high-performance S10 VT motor glider from the Stemme company from Strausberg in Brandenburg, modified according to the latest knowledge for high-altitude flights, was used as the instrument carrier for the aircraft-based measurement campaigns . The team received support with the flight physiological preparation from renowned flight medicine specialists from DLR and the astronaut Ulf Merbold .

The MWP's goal of tackling the issues with competent scientists and state-of-the-art sensor technology was impressively implemented during Operation Mendoza in October 2006. The area between the massifs of Tupungato (5,700 m) and Aconcagua (6,900 m), known for its particularly insidious turbulence, was explored. The so-called Best Aircraft Turbulence Probe (BATprobe), a device that was jointly developed under the direction of Jörg Hacker and Timothy Crawford from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was used as the core of the measurement technology . The innovative use of the most modern measurement electronics and miniaturized sensors enabled high-resolution turbulence, temperature and humidity measurements (up to 100 measuring points per second) with the help of the motor glider. The combination of the BATprobe with a modern GPS- assisted inertial navigation system also allowed the very precise determination of the three-dimensional wind vector (and thus the atmospheric turbulence) in rotors. During the MWP expedition, the first scientific turbulence measurements were taken over the Andes up to an altitude of 12,500 m, the lower edge of the stratosphere .

Record flights

Another challenge for the team was in the field of air sports - the record in long-distance gliding (FAI category free distance). The wave flight pioneer Joachim Küttner donated the Küttner Prize at the OSTIV in 1987 for the first flight of 2,000 km in a straight distance. Numerous glider pilots in all regions of the world tried to master this new dimension in gliding. In this context, it should be noted that in addition to the aerospace and physiological performance of the pilot, there is a meteorological challenge. The updraft systems necessary for gliding are limited by the atmospheric forms of movement that characterize them to a certain length and time scale, which allow flights of up to a maximum of 1,500 km under optimal meteorological conditions or combinations.

MWP research aircraft Stemme S 10 VT over the Lanín volcano

The Andes, the longest mountain range in the world, where strong westerly high-altitude winds hit the mountain range unchecked from the Pacific Ocean - ideal for the formation of lee waves in terms of flow - were specifically selected by the MWP for this long-distance flight over 2,000 km. Other pilot teams preferred starting locations in the Sierra Nevada (USA), Tian-Shan (China) or the Southern Alps . On November 23, 2003, Klaus Ohlmann completed the 2,120 km route from El Calafate to San Juan.

In addition to pioneering flights in gliders in the wave systems in the southern part of the Andes cordillera, the discovered new dimension of these updraft systems and their importance for atmospheric physics, numerous collaborations with universities and research institutions (DLR [20], Philipps University Marburg [16], Office for Geographic information system of the Bundeswehr / DWD [15])

In 2006 Rene Heise was a reviewer for the National Science Foundation for the Terrain Induced Rotor Experiment (T-REX) in Owens Valley and was in Bishop (USA) during the core phase of the Field Campaign. The MWP was awarded the second Lilienthal Prize in 2007. With the presentation of the project goals at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Lhasa and an exploration tour in Tibet, the preparations for a new research expedition began in October 2010

Research priorities

  • Determination and recognition of the atmospheric physical processes as well as the associated synoptic characteristics that play a role in the formation and development of mountain waves in the strongly orographically structured terrain
  • Research into rotor bands and determination of their expansion, magnitude and classification of the existing turbulence
  • High-resolution measurements of meteorological parameters (potential temperature, vertical speed, wind) or calculation of impulse transport
  • Visualization of the rotors on a terrain database and development of a guidance / forecasting procedure for pilots and advising meteorologists
  • Investigation of aeromedical aspects of human performance under extreme environmental conditions (altitude, cold, turbulence) with the help of portable psychophysiological measuring systems (HealthLab system) as well as investigation of pulse oximetry data

Expeditions

  • Argentina'99 : San Martín de Los Andes base airport (Argentina); Several flights over 1,000 km, record flight (1,550 km) from Klaus Ohlmann to Tierra del Fuego (Rio Grande); Southernmost glider in the world.
  • Serres (France) & Jaca (Spain) 2003 : Measurement flights with southerlywaves in Provence and general waveflightswith stormy north winds in the lee of the Pyrenees .
  • Operation Mendoza 2006 : Plumerillo Base Airfield (Argentina); Measurement campaign at the invitation of the Argentine Air Force , flights with BATprobe over the high cordillera in the Tupungato - Aconcagua region up to an altitude of 12,500 m.
  • Tibet 2010 exploration tour Presentation of the MWP measurement campaign in Lhasa ; Exploration of emergency landing fields along the Samzhubzê - Tingri route

Project results

Aircraft-based in-situ measurements of atmospheric parameters up to 12,500 m above the Aconcagua
  • Development of an operational lee wave forecast in cooperation with the Office for Geoinformation of the Bundeswehr and the German Weather Service
  • Use of the experimental prediction tool to estimate wave activities and the turbulence potential globally and regionally. The model window for regionally movable mesoscale weather forecast models has been moved to Antarctica, Hindu Kush / Tian Shan, Kamchatka, Sierra Nevada and Tibet.
  • First scientific turbulence measurement flights over the Andes, comparison of airborne measurements of the parameters wind, temperature, humidity and pressure with radiosonde measurements and satellite soundings (radio occultation, remote sensing with GPS)
  • Cataloging of over 200 global positions of the rotor-shaft system and visualization in a geographic information system (GIS); Analysis of flight incidents and crashes in connection with MTW turbulence
  • Development of a math.-statist. Evaluation algorithm to filter wave upwelling bands from GNSS flight recorder data, used to optimize record flights
  • Aviation highlights: Record flight to Tierra del Fuego (MWP-Argentina '99); World record flight (FAI Category Free Distance) - 2,120 km (OSTIV Küttner Prize)
  • Height physiological preparation u. Recommendations for pilots (human factors)

GEO documentation

  • 2003 Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) - Rodeo am Himmel - Research for more flight safety / Rodeo in the Sky - Research for greater flight safety (45 min; German / English)
  • 2007 ARTE - 360 ° GEO report The wind riders of the Andes / Les Enragés du vol à voile (45 min; German / French)
  • 2011 3sat - TV report in connection with the MWP lecture series (Dangers to Aviation) at the 6th Extreme Weather Congress in Hamburg; Swell in the air - behind mountains dangerous air eddies arise (6 min; German)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Transmission - Magazine of the German Air Traffic Control 12/2007
  2. ↑ 6th ExtremWetterKongress - MWP series of lectures in the flying category, including an article on hazards for commercial aviation on April 14, 2011
  3. ↑ RBB science documentation "Rodeo in the sky - research for more flight safety"
  4. ↑ Best Aircraft Turbulence (BAT) Probe - NOAA website of January 2, 2011
  5. ^ A b c 14th National Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (AMOS) Conference
  6. ^ Synoptic Scale Meteorology
  7. ↑ a b Weather Forecasting for Soaring Flight, WMO No. 1038
  8. ^ Joachim, Küttner, The 2000 km Wave Flight, Soaring 3/1985
  9. ↑ Li Kaihe, A sample of soaring a straight distance of 2,000 Km, Technical soaring, Vol 23, 1, 1999, p. 7
  10. ↑ FAI-World Records Class D Category Free Distance (accessed October 10, 2006)
  11. ^ Air Safety Week April 3, 2006
  12. ↑ Lilienthal Prize Foundation
  13. ↑ a b Aerokurier International 12/2010
  14. ↑ Swiss Aviation Magazine- AeroRevue 02/2011
  15. ↑ Aerokurier International 2/2000
  16. ↑ Fliegerrevue 3/2000
  17. ↑ Forecasts in the pc_met self-briefing system of the German Weather Service
  18. ↑ Ultsch, Heise, Data Mining to Distinguish Wave from Thermal Climbs in Flight Data, 34th Conference GfKl
  19. ↑ Heise, Hacker, Ultsch, How to obtain a large database of measurements on atmospheric gravity waves, American Geophysical Union Chapman Conference, Atmospheric Gravity Waves and Their Effects on General Circulation and Climate, Honolulu, Abstract, accessed April 14, 2011
  20. ↑ Aerokurier 4/2000
  21. ^ OSTIV website, accessed December 15, 2010
  22. ^ High Altitude Aspects Mountain Wave Project Argentina'99
  23. ^ Heiderose Haesler: waves in the air. April 15, 2011, accessed October 10, 2012 .