OWWS - Operational Windshear Warning System , 1992-1999, undated

In order to enhance flight safety and operational efficiency at the new Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong Kong during terrain-induced windshear and turbulence, the Operational Windshear Warning System (OWWS) program was created. Weather Information Technologies, Inc. (WITI) together with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the University of Wyoming (UW) and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), under the sponsorship of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO), participated in the OWWS program. The program was managed by B. Donaldson (WITI), R. Wagoner and W. Mahoney (NCAR) and J. Chen (HKUST). The major objective of the program was to develop and implement a Windshear and Turbulence Warning System (WTWS) for the new airport. On 17 July 1997, after 44-months of research and development, the WTWS system was accepted by the Hong Kong Government. One of the first major tasks of NCAR, primarily the Research Applications Program (RAP) and the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology (MMM) divisions, was to perform a detailed meteorological review of historical data and perform analyses to better understand the flow conditions near CLK. This component of the research program was primarily conducted by B. Foote, P. Neilley, T. Keller,T. Clark, H.M. Hsu, and C. Wade. The First Meteorological Report included: a) a review of scientific theory on flow around complex terrain; b) an analysis and identification of conditions which could cause Terrain-Induced Windshear and Turbulence (TIWT) near CLK; c) numerical experiments aimed at gaining additional insight on conditions that produce TIWT; and d) an estimate of the timing and location of significant TIWT at the new airport. Knowledge gained from the first meteorological study was used, along with other information, to design a scientific field experiment to understand the fine-scale flow in the vicinity of CLK. The scientific field program, called LANTEX, began in March 1994 and concluded in September 1995. The scientific field study was performed by scientists at RAP (Neilley, D. Blanchard, Cornman and Keller), MMM (Clark, J. Coen, and Hsu) and UW (A. Rodi). The results of the scientific studies coupled with feedback were used to develop an operational concept for the WTWS. The WTWS concepts and user needs were established by NCAR/RAP (C. Biter, Mahoney, T. Lindholm, Neilley and Cornman) over a two-year period culminating with a demonstration of a prototype WTWS in October 1995. The WTWS was designed by staff at RAP (G. Wiener, Mahoney, D. Albo, Neilley, Cornman, C. Morse, L. Carson, M. Dixon, D. Fletcher, M. Limber, K. Goodrich, G. Cunning), and MMM (S. Low-Nam, D. Gill, and W. Kuo), and by staff at HKUST (Chen, A. Lau, D.Yeung, A. Kwok and J. Ho). The WTWS provides alerts for terrain–and convective–induced windshear and turbulence. The system, developed by Weather Information Technologies Inc. (WITI), has been utilized by air traffic controllers and pilots since opening day, 6 July 1998. The 44–month project was under the sponsorship of the Hong Kong Observatory. The WTWS development team included WITI, theNational Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and the University of Wyoming. Note: The WTWS was previously known as the OWWS – the Operational Windshear Warning System.

LANTEX: Lantau Experiment (LANTEX) April 15, 1994 to September 30, 1995 Summary Surface & Sounding Systems Facility (SSSF) provided an Integrated Sounding System (ISS) from April through mid-August 1994 for the LANTEX OWWS study of the site of the new airport at Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong. The OWWS provides real-time turbulence alerts and warnings, using real-time sensor data in conjunction with special algorithms. The ISS furnished measurements to help characterize the effects of the local topography on the weather and wind patterns of the area. The ISS was sited at an upstream location to measure atmospheric conditions that were undisturbed by either Lantau Island or other nearby islands.

The field observation program, known as LANTEX, made use of the NCAR King Air instrumented aircraft, two doppler wind profilers, a RASS sounding system, about 20 automatic surface observing stations, a Doppler lidar and two radiosonde sites over a sixteen-month period ending 30 September 1995.