For this activity, choose from ONE of the three following airports, for which you will analyze and interpret wind rose data. Each location is hyperlinked to a Google Maps™ mapping service satellite image of the airport (NOTE: all images are oriented with North at the top): Fresno Yosemite
PART A: Go to the appropriate web page of wind rose climatology for your chosen airport location (provided by Iowa Environmental Mesonet): Fresno Yosemite
Scroll down the page to the Monthly Climatology section. Select a wind rose for ANY month of the year. Capture and insert the image of the wind rose selected into your document.
Next, analyze and interpret the wind rose image you captured to determine the following information for your airport’s location during this month of the year:
The average wind speed.
The most probable (predominant) direction FROM which the wind blows, and the percentage of time it blows from this direction.
The most likely range of the wind’s speed when it is blowing from the predominant direction.
The least likely range of wind’s speed when it is blowing from the predominant direction.
The least probable direction FROM which the wind blows, and the percentage of time it blows from this direction.
PART B: Analyze the Yearly Climatology wind rose and Monthly Climatology wind roses for ALL months of the year, along with satellite imagery of the airport, to answer the following questions. Support each of your answers with evidence from the wind roses, airport imagery, and/or other sources of information as needed.
Is the runway orientation at this location optimal for flight operations for most of the year?
In which month is the probability for an aircraft to experience crosswinds upon takeoff or landing greatest?
PART C: On the satellite imagery web page for the airport, zoom out to inspect the local region surrounding the airport to identify terrain, bodies of water, or other key features influencing the prevailing winds. Then, zoom out even farther to gain a larger scale perspective of the airport location to determine the global scale circulations influencing the prevailing winds.
Synthesizing and applying concepts explored in Module 6 regarding regional and global winds, explain how the identified regional features and global scale circulations are influencing the prevailing winds at the airport.
