The Australian Transport Safety Bureau recommends that the
Bureau of Meteorology expedite a program to record output data from
all available wind sensors and Low Level Wind Shear Alert Systems,
and to retain that data for a minimum period of 30 days for use in
reconstructing pertinent windshear events and as a basis for
studies to effect system safety and improvement.
The following response dated 13 April 2004 was received from the
Bureau of Meteorology:
Following a wind shear incident at Perth Airport in 1999 when a
B747-400 scraped an engine pod on the ground while landing, steps
have been taken to record high-frequency wind data from multiple
Airservices anemometers. Initially, this was only planned for
Sydney and Perth aerodromes. Data has been recorded at Sydney
Airport since December 2001 and arrangements are still being put in
place to record Perth data. The data is being recorded in the same
format as that used for the Darwin LLWAS. This will allow
components developed for Darwin LLWAS to be used in the analysis of
the data and consequently to make an assessment of the level of
risk associated with wind shear at Sydney and Perth.
Some work would need to be done if there was a requirement to
provide data to this resolution from all major aerodromes in
Australia. Currently, the Bureau archives METAR (half-hourly) and
SPECI wind data from all its own anemometers, and one-minute data
from around 120 locations, including major airports. However, data
at this resolution would not be suitable for identifying wind
shear.
