Severe Meteorological Factors Affecting Civil Aviation Flights at Iraqi Airports

Abstract

By studying the impact of severe weather conditions on civil aviation flights at Iraqi international airports, data were obtained from the General Authority for Meteorology and Seismic Monitoring, the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, and Iraqi Airways, as daily data for Baghdad International Airport, Erbil Airport, Sulaymaniyah Airport, Najaf Airport, and Basra Airport. The frequency of occurrence of thunderstorms, dust storms, fog, and snow was calculated and analyzed depending on the extent of horizontal visibility to determine the hours of air closure and aircraft movement at all airports of the study. This paper also discussed the temperature and its effect on the take-off and landing processes, the results showed that Baghdad International Airport was greatly affected by the occurrence of fog, followed by the airports of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah and their impact by the occurrence of thunderstorms and snow, while both Najaf Airport and Basra International Airport were greatly affected by dust storms.