Wind measurements from four airliners in 1988 Denver microburst

Abstract

Flight and radar position records are analyzed to determine the winds encountered by four airliners that penetrated a microburst on approach to Denver's Stapleton International Airport on July 11, 1988. The four encounters provide information about the time-varying changes in the strength, size, and location of the microburst phenomenon. The results show significant expansion in the size of the microburst and indicate the presence of fluctuations in the internal wind velocity associated with multiple microburst cells. At its peak strength, as experienced by the second aircraft, the microburst produced a headwind-to-tailwind velocity change of 115 ft/s. It is shown that the developing wind patterns derived from the flight-data analysis are in general agreement with results derived from ground-based Doppler weather radar and from a numerical microburst simulation. The data from the four aircraft complement these other findings by providing a more detailed analysis of the microburst's internal wind environment.