Padrões atmosféricos de condições meteorológicas adversas no Aeroporto Internacional de Belém.

Abstract

The occurrence of adverse weather conditions at airports determines unfavorable situations to air traffic, as visibility and ceiling restriction, and slippery track conditions, which are a major risk factor for safety operations. These setbacks can cause sizeable losses for the companies involved and discomfort to the airworthiness of the users. Therefore, this study aimed at determining weather patterns that cause the occurrence of adverse weather conditions in Belem International Airport (SBBE) through the application of factor analysis (FA) on principal components analysis (PCA). It wasused meteorological surface data from the SBBE and outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), in grid point over Belém (Brazil), from the reanalysis of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). Through statistical indicators, it was selected the appropriate set of variables for the application of the PCA. The data used were in the rainy periods of 2003 to 2012, as the rainy season has been detected as many reports of the SPECI code in the SBBE. The dominant factor is associated with the daily variation of the heating/cooling of the surface. The second factor is the changes in the moisture content near the surface as a result of climate variability associated with temperature anomalies of the sea surface in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. And another equally important factor is related to the presence of deep convection, and consequently storms, which were developed by mechanisms of dynamic local mesoscale circulations such as circulations of maritime and/or fluvial breeze over the area in which is located the SBBE. This last factor was the one which had the highest number of occurrences of the variables that have relation with the establishment of the adverse weather conditions that limit of takeoffs and landings operations in the SBBE.