A comprehensive study of terrain‐disrupted airflow at Hong Kong International Airport – observations and numerical simulations

Weather ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (7) ◽  
pp. 199-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.W. Chan ◽  
K.K. Hon ◽  
Q.S. Li
2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. W. Chan ◽  
K. K. Hon

Terrain-induced windshear at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) could be hazardous to the landing and departing aircraft. Such windshear occurring in a planetary boundary layer without temperature inversions is studied in this paper by using the data from the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar and Light Detection and Ranging systems. A high resolution numerical model, called aviation model (AVM), is also employed to find out its capability to forecast the occurrence of such windshear. The model is found to have skills in capturing the terrain-induced windshear, including the terrain-induced microburst due to the mountains of Lantau Island. Moreover, the windshear detection algorithm as applied to the AVM output, called AVM-GLYGA, is able to give advance alert for the occurrence of low-level windshear. The model also offers new dataset, such as vertical velocity and vertical cross sections across the windshear feature, to study the terrain-induced windshear phenomena with new insights. The AVM is found to have good skills in depicting the terrain-disrupted airflow at the airport area, and more comprehensive study would be conducted to study the skills of AVM-GLYGA as compared with pilot windshear report as sky truth.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 202-210
Author(s):  
Ho Kai Patrick Tsang ◽  
Cheuk Kei Kathy Wong ◽  
Oi Fung Wong ◽  
Wing Lun William Chan ◽  
Hing Man Ma ◽  
...  

Background: Body packing is a frequently used method for drug trafficking. Local information about the clinical and radiological features of body packing is lacking. Objectives: To evaluate the radiological features of body packers presenting to a hospital near to the Hong Kong International Airport and to compare the radiological features of solid form versus liquid cocaine. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study. Medical notes of 269 suspected body packers, presenting to the Accident and Emergency Department of North Lantau Hospital under the detention by the law enforcement personnel from 1st January 2015 to 28th February 2017, were reviewed. The radiological features of body packing were retrospectively evaluated. Results: Sixty-nine cases were confirmed body packers radiographically. Majority of them (81%, 56/69) were cocaine packers. Powder form cocaine (67%, 49/69) was the most popular drug packed, followed by liquid cocaine (15%, 10/69). There was a trend of increasing incidence of liquid cocaine packers. The classical ‘double condom’, ‘tic tac’ and ‘halo’ signs were present in 94%, 72.5% and 42% of cases with radiologically confirmed body packing respectively. The ‘rosette’ sign was only identified in 1 case. Three new radiological signs, the ‘bag of eggs’, ‘lucent triangle’ and ‘black crescent’ sign, were suggested to aid identification of drug packets. The classical ‘tic tac’ sign was absent in all liquid cocaine packing cases (p<0.05). The liquid cocaine packets appeared irregular with indistinct border in majority of cases (p<0.05). The solid form packets were mostly opaque to faeces while liquid cocaine had variable density (p<0.05). Most solid form packets had homogeneous content which was in contrast to the heterogeneous content in liquid cocaine (p<0.05). Conclusion: Failure in detecting drug body packing may result in medicolegal consequences. Emergency physicians need to be aware of subtle radiological signs of liquid cocaine packets in the plain abdominal radiography.


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