Peak Wind Forecasts for the Launch-Critical Wind Towers on Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Phase IV

This final report describes the development of a peak wind forecast tool to assist forecasters in determining the probability of violating launch commit criteria (LCC) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The peak winds arc an important forecast clement for both the Space Shuttle and Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) programs. The LCC define specific peak wind thresholds for each launch operation that cannot be exceeded in order to ensure the safety of the vehicle. The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) has found that peak winds are a challenging parameter to forecast, particularly in the cool season months of October through April. Based on the importance of forecasting peak winds, the 45 WS tasked the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) to update the statistics in the current peak-wind forecast tool to assist in forecasting LCC violations. The tool includes onshore and offshore flow climatologies of the 5-minute mean and peak winds and probability distributions of the peak winds as a function of the 5-minute mean wind speeds

Statistical Short-Range Guidance for Peak Wind Forecasts on Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Phase III

This final report describes the development of a peak wind forecast tool to assist forecasters in determining the probability of violating launch commit criteria (LCC) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The peak winds are an important forecast element for both the Space Shuttle and Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) programs. The LCC define specific peak wind thresholds for each launch operation that cannot be exceeded in order to ensure the safety of the vehicle. The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) has found that peak winds are a challenging parameter to forecast, particularly in the cool season months of October through April. Based on the importance of forecasting peak winds, the 45 WS tasked the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) to develop a short-range peak-wind forecast tool to assist in forecasting LCC violations.The tool includes climatologies of the 5-minute mean and peak winds by month, hour, and direction, and probability distributions of the peak winds as a function of the 5-minute mean wind speeds

A Peak Wind Probability Forecast Tool for Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

This conference abstract describes the development of a peak wind forecast tool to assist forecasters in determining the probability of violating launch commit criteria (LCC) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in east-central Florida. The peak winds are an important forecast element for both the Space Shuttle and Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) programs. The LCC define specific peak wind thresholds for each launch operation that cannot be exceeded in order to ensure the safety of the vehicle. The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) has found that peak winds are a challenging parameter to forecast, particularly in the cool season months of October through April. Based on the importance of forecasting peak winds, the 45 WS tasked the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) to develop a short-range peak-wind forecast tool to assist in forecasting LCC violatioas.The tool will include climatologies of the 5-minute mean end peak winds by month, hour, and direction, and probability distributions of the peak winds as a function of the 5-minute mean wind speeds

Modifications to the Objective Lightning Probability Forecast Tool at Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) includes the probability of lightning occurrence in their 24-Hour and Weekly Planning Forecasts, briefed at 0700 EDT for daily operations planning on Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and CCAFS. This forecast is based on subjective analyses of model and observational data and output from an objective tool developed by the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU). This tool was developed over two phases (Lambert and Wheeler 2005, Lambert 2007). It consists of five equations, one for each warm season month (May-Sep), that calculate the probability of lightning occurrence for the day and a graphical user interface (GUI) to display the output. The Phase I and II equations outperformed previous operational tools by a total of 56%. Based on this success, the 45 WS tasked the AMU with Phase III to improve the tool further

Developing a Peak Wind Probability Forecast Tool for Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

No abstract availabl

Situational Lightning Climatologies

Research has revealed distinct spatial and temporal distributions of lightning occurrence that are strongly influenced by large-scale atmospheric flow regimes. It was believed there were two flow systems, but it has been discovered that actually there are seven distinct flow regimes. The Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) has recalculated the lightning climatologies for the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF), and the eight airfields in the National Weather Service in Melbourne (NWS MLB) County Warning Area (CWA) using individual lightning strike data to improve the accuracy of the climatologies. The software determines the location of each CG lightning strike with 5-, 10-, 20-, and 30-nmi (.9.3-, 18.5-, 37-, 55.6-km) radii from each airfield. Each CG lightning strike is binned at 1-, 3-, and 6-hour intervals at each specified radius. The software merges the CG lightning strike time intervals and distance with each wind flow regime and creates probability statistics for each time interval, radii, and flow regime, and stratifies them by month and warm season. The AMU also updated the graphical user interface (GUI) with the new data

A Comparison of Tropical Storm (TS) and Non-TS Gust Factors for Assessing Peak Wind Probabilities at the Eastern Range

Peak wind speed is an important forecast element to ensure the safety of personnel and flight hardware at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in East-Central Florida. The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS), the organization that issues forecasts for the KSC/CCAFS area, finds that peak winds are more difficult to forecast than mean winds. This difficulty motivated the 45 WS to request two independent studies. The first (Merceret 2009) was the development of a reliable model for gust factors (GF) relating the peak to the mean wind speed in tropical storms (TS). The second (Lambert et al. 2008) was a climatological study of non-TS cool season (October-April) mean and peak wind speeds by the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU; Bauman et al. 2004) without the use of GF. Both studies presented their statistics as functions of mean wind speed and height. Most of the few comparisons of TS and non-TS GF in the literature suggest that non-TS GF at a given height and mean wind speed are smaller than the corresponding TS GF. The investigation reported here converted the non-TS peak wind statistics calculated by the AMU to the equivalent GF statistics and compared them with the previous TS GF results. The advantage of this effort over all previously reported studies of its kind is that the TS and non-TS data were taken from the same towers in the same locations. This eliminates differing surface attributes, including roughness length and thermal properties, as a major source of variance in the comparison. The goal of this study is two-fold: to determine the relationship between the non-TS and TS GF and their standard deviations (GFSD) and to determine if models similar to those developed for TS data in Merceret (2009) could be developed for the non-TS environment. The results are consistent with the literature, but include much more detailed, quantitative information on the nature of the relationship between TS and non-TS GF and GFSD as a function of height and mean wind speed

Recent Weather Technologies Delivered to America's Space Program by the Applied Meteorology Unit

The Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) is a unique joint venture of NASA, the Air Force and the National Weather Service (NWS) and has been supporting the Space Program for nearly two decades. The AMU acts as a bridge between the meteorological research community and operational forecasters by developing, evaluating and transitioning new technology and techniques to improve weather support to spaceport operations at the Eastern Range (ER) and Kennedy Space Center. Its primary customers are the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at Johnson Space Center and the National Weather Service Office in Melbourne, FL. Its products are used to support NASA's Shuttle and ELV programs as well as Department of Defense and commercial launches from the ER. Shuttle support includes landing sites beyond the ER. The AMU is co-located with the Air Force operational forecasters at CCAFS to facilitate continuous two-way interaction between the AMU and its operational customers. It is operated under a NASA, Air Force, and NWS Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by a competitively-selected contractor. The contract, which is funded and managed by NASA, provides five full time professionals with degrees in meteorology or related fields, some of whom also have operational experience. NASA provides a Ph.D.- level NASA civil service scientist as Chief of the AMU. The AMU is tasked by its customers through a unique, nationally recognized process. The tasks are limited to development, evaluation and operational transition of technology to improve weather support to spaceport operations and providing expert advice to the customers. The MOU expressly forbids using the AMU resources to conduct operations or do basic research. The presentation will provide a brief overview of the AMU and how it is tasked by its customers to provide high priority products and services. The balance of the presentation will cover a sampling of products delivered over the last 18 years that are currently in operational use. Each example will describe the problem to be solved, the solution provided, and the operational benefits of implementing that solution

Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) Quarterly Report

This report summarizes the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) activities for the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2011 (January-March 2011)

Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU)

The AMU Team began four new tasks in this quarter: (1) began work to improve the AMU-developed tool that provides the launch weather officers information on peak wind speeds that helps them assess their launch commit criteria; (2) began updating lightning climatologies for airfields around central Florida. These climatologies help National Weather Service and Air Force forecasters determine the probability of lightning occurrence at these sites; (3) began a study for the 30th Weather Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to determine if precursors can be found in weather observations to help the forecasters determine when they will get strong wind gusts in their northern towers; and (4) began work to update the AMU-developed severe weather tool with more data and possibly improve its performance using a new statistical technique. Include is a section of summaries and detail reporting on the quarterly tasks: (1) Peak Wind Tool for user Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (LCC), Phase IV, (2) Situational Lightning climatologies for Central Florida, Phase V, (3) Vandenberg AFB North Base Wind Study and (4) Upgrade Summer Severe Weather Tool Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (MIDDS)