Journal article

Trapped mountain waves during a light aircraft accident

TJ Parker, TP Lane

Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Journal | Published : 2013

Abstract

On 31 July 2007 a fatal light aircraft crash occurred near Clonbinane, Victoria, Australia and the official investigation concluded that mountain wave turbulence was the likely cause. This study uses three-dimensional numerical modelling and linear wave theory to examine the dynamics of mountain waves during this turbulence event and their role in generating turbulence. Analysis of the observed environment and three-dimensional idealised simulations elucidate the occurrence of trapped mountain waves and their role in creating regions of enhanced turbulence in the vicinity of the aircraft accident. Specifically, these waves perturb layers of low dynamic stability in the upstream flow, promoti..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council Future Fellowship


Funding Acknowledgements

Todd Lane is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT0990892). We thank Terry Clark for providing his numerical model, and Chermelle Engel and Andrea Henderson (Bureau of Meteorology) for providing operational forecast information and model data. This work was conducted while the lead author was an Honours student at the University of Melbourne. The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers for their input and improvements in the manuscript.