Low Level Turbulence Algorithm Testing at-or-below 10,000 ft

The HQ Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) Technology Exploitation Branch (DNXT) chose the Panofsky Index as a low-level turbulence index for a layer from the surface to 4,500 ft AGL after considerable testing during 2001 and 2002. The algorithm consists of buoyancy, wind speed, and wind shear terms. The product is derived from AFWA MM5 data run for various domains at several horizontal resolutions worldwide.

Responding to DoD warfighter requirements, over the past year we have collected PIREP and test-algorithm data to see how this index performs in two additional layers: 5,000-8,000 ft AGL and 7,000-10,000 ft AGL. Each term of the algorithm was also analyzed separately because to our knowledge, this algorithm had not been tested at these somewhat higher heights above the surface. Additionally, we tested a more compact low-level layer, surface to 3,000 ft AGL, to see if this could produce even better performance than our current surface to 4,500 ft AGL layer. Results for all of these endeavors will be presented.