Projected Utilization of Warm Fog Dispersal Systems at Several Major Airports

Abstract

Hourly surface weather observations are combined with air traffic records to calculate projected utilization of operational warm fog dispersal systems at 15 Air Force bases in the United States and Europe, and at one civilian airport in California, Los Angeles International (LAX). It is projected that between 0.8 and 2.7% of the flights at the airports in the United States and between 4.8 and 7.1% of those at the European bases are adversely affected by warm fog in an average year. In most cases these percentages represent between 300 and 500 flights per year at the Air Force bases in the United States, approximately twice that amount of traffic at the bases in Europe, and approximately ten times that number of flights at LAX. A similar study sponsored by the FAA allowed comparable projections to be made for 40 additional civilian airports. Of the 21 civilian airports with the highest projected utilization of warm fog dispersal systems, it was found that the percentage of affected landings was generally less than one-half of the Air Force bases, but the total number of such landings was generally as high, and in many cases considerably higher.