Lagrangian Coherent Structure Analysis of Terminal Winds: Three-Dimensionality, Intramodel Variations, and Flight Analyses

Figure 1

(a)–(c) Horizontal wind speeds (in knots) for RAMS, FLOWSTAR, and WRF, respectively, along the landing corridor. The thick black solid curve in each figure is the landing trajectory. The vector field is the plot of headwind and vertical velocity along the landing corridor, where hints of coherent structures can be seen. (d) Headwind comparison between measurements and models. Thick black solid curve: onboard measurement. Magenta curve: LIDAR measurements along the PPI scanning cone. Blue dashed curve: interpolated headwind from RAMS. Red dash-dotted curve: interpolated headwind from FLOWSTAR. Green dotted curve: interpolated headwind from WRF. The black arrow above (a) indicates direction of flight.