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Topic:

Downbursts Summary (Essay Sample)

Instructions:

indly summarize chapter 22, downbursts, from the book "severe & Hazardous weather 4th edition" pictures of the pages is attached.
the guide line is attached as will.
on the first page, as stated on the guideline, kindly mention that since i'm a current aviation major i find it interesting and importante to be aware of such a phenomena. also mention that i find it interesting because the recent accident. include some from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microburst#Danger_to_aircraft to support my points
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Added on 30.11.2015 22:33
on the first page include that it"s important to know about down drafts since they are very critical on every phase of the flight. on the last portion, discussion, mention that having such knowledge will make me up-to-date on my job as a pilot and have a better understanding of my surrounding

source..
Content:
Name
Professor
Title
Date
Downbursts Summary
I am a current Aviation Major student. I find the topic regarding downbursts interesting because it is a major aviation hazard. The topic is imperative to expand my scope of knowledge on extreme environmental phenomena that can be damaging to flights. This topic defines downbursts, describes their formation, heatbursts, microbursts, and their danger to aviation using real-life examples of aviation hazard occurrences.
Extreme weather events have been experienced in certain regions of the world. They are often unseasonal, unusual and very severe. The extreme events occur in regions that lie in the unusual ten percent of the globe. Downbursts, microburst, and heatbursts are strong winds that form at ground level and originate from the downward wind from the core of the thunderstorm. They mark sudden rise in temperature to mark their occurrence but only affect a small area.
A downburst is a strong wind system formed at ground level and emanates from a point. They are downdrafts that cause strong out-rushes of damaging winds by producing strong wind shear. They originate from the air in showers or thunderstorm and appear to be relatively cool due to falling precipitation. In case a downdraft occurs during take-off, the pilot experiences a headwind and enhanced aircraft performance prior to a short period of decreased headwind, a downdraft, and then a strong tailwind. During landing, the plane begins to descent into a strong headwind, then experiences a downdraft followed by a strong tailwind. The aircraft then find themselves pushed to the ground by the intense downdraft and tailwinds.
Heatbursts are warm blasts from downdrafts. They are characteristic downbursts that begin as downrushes of air in thunderstorms. They cause strong horizontal winds once the down-rushing air attains a ground level. However, heatbursts exhibit high temperatures due to substantial loss of water during the downward trajectory that enables adiabatic warming to dominate the evaporation cooling. It is thought to originate from higher levels of dying thunderstorms in which the incoming moisture content is significantly reduced due to evaporation of the available liquid at higher levels.
A microburst a downdraft that moves in the opposite direction of a tornado and occurs during strong thunderstorms, and its outburst extend damaging winds to more than 2.5 miles of the horizontal dimension. It occurs in two forms as either dry or wet microbursts. A wet microburst produces damaging winds less than 2.5miles and is accompanied with strong rains. A dry microburst produces damaging winds less than 2.5miles and is accompanied by little or no rainfall.
Once a plane penetrates the core of the microburst, it results to rapid loss of the lift that was initially gained from the strong headwind that propelled the plane upwards. The plane initially enters the core of the microburst and experiences a headwind and a lift prior to the rapid loss of the airspeed due to downward air motion that forces the plane to go below the glide slope. A microburst has high winds that can overturn fully grown trees and depending on how long they last, they can cause fatal plane accidents.
Modern technology has played a crucial role to enhance microburst detection. The strong wind shear that is linked to downbursts is detected by radar. The strong level divergence at the core of the downburst produces a couplet of winds that move away from the radar. The radial velocities are color-coded such that positive (red winds move away from the radar while negative (green or blue) radial winds are blown towards the radar. Divergent winds appear as green pixels that are adjacent to the radar while the red pixels are far away from the radar. Several detection systems are used to detect microbursts in commercial and public airlines. The primary detection system is the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) that protects the airport by detecting microbursts and wind shear. Most of the microbursts can be detected by radars provided they fall near the resolution limit of the radar.
Weather is crucial in determining take-offs and landing of airplanes. Takeoffs are usually associated with pressure differences across the wings of the plane that generate an upward force that propels the plane upwards. Bernoulli's principle of aerodynamics implies that the pressure beneath the wings is greater than the pressure above the wings every time the airflows across the wings. This creates an upward pressure gradient that aids to lift the plane. Aeronautic engineers stipulate that the air that moves across the wings is diverted downward by the wings thus causing an upward force that lifts the plane. The theory is explained by Newton’s third law of motion that states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Therefore, when the upward pressure is exactly equal and opposite to gravity, the aircraft maintains its altitude.
For most take-offs and landings, the airplane takes the direction that provides the headwind rather than the tailwind because the force of the tailwind is often lower during these events. The lift force is typically diminished by approximately 1.3% per knot of the tailwind during takeoffs. In the air, the plane maintains certain airspeed across its wings to remain in the air. In case the airspeed across the wings goes below the critical value, the airplane will stop or lose control and therefore, descend rapidly to the ground. When the plane’s speed goes below the tall speed during landing, it becomes problematic for the pilot because in such a situation, there is no room for recovery. During takeoffs and landing, the plane flies closer to its stall speed more than any other time during the flight because, the plane is closest to the ground at these moments. At these times of the flight, the aircraft is more vulnerable to an encounter with a downburst.
A microburst affects both takeoffs and landings. In the case of landing, the problem can be more serious because the aircraft is slowed and descending. The plane experiences rapid loss of airspeed and a downwash that causes it to descend too rapidly. It may get out of control in case its speed falls below the stall speed. The situation can be more tragic when the pilot is unaware of the happenings and therefore, slows down the plane in an attempt to return to the glide slope. Headwinds that are associated with a microburst lift the plane above the glide slope. The negative effect of a wet microburst in landing was experienced in Arkansas when The Little Rock airport recorded a wind gust that lasted for six minutes.
The strongest m...
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