INDIA METEOROGLOGICAL DEPARTMENT AERONAUTICAL CLIMATO LOGICAL SUMMARIES CONTENTS PREFACE WMO MODELS - A, B, C, D,E&Table VI BASED ON DATA FOR THE PERIOD 1998 - 2002 INTRODUCTION MODEL A MODEL B MODEL C NEW DELHI MODEL D (INDIRA GANDHI INTERNATIONAL) MODEL E AIRPORT TABLE VI FIGURES OFFICE OF THE ADDITIONAL DIRECTOR GENERAL OF METEOROLOGY (RESEARCH) INDIA METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT 2006 2006 DESIGNED & AUTHORED AT THE METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE PRESS PUNE P R E F A C P R E F A C E Meteorological services for Aviation are very essential for making air navigation safe, cost effective and efficient. Aircrafts mostly fly in the lower atmosphere where most of the weather systems develop and decay during their life cycle. The relevant information of meteorological parameters - particularly atmospheric pressure, weather, wind, visibility & runway visual range (RVR), cloud height and temperature are needed for the operation of an aircraft from take off to the landing phases. Apart from current weather, climatology of an airport is also very important for determination of runway orientation, flight planning and to understand weather factors affecting a particular airport at a particular time. It is therefore very essential that climatology of an airport is available as a ready reckoner to understand frequencies of various weather elements in different temporal scales which affect aircraft operations. Earlier, Aeronautical Climatological Summaries in respect of four International Airports were first published by India Meteorological Department in 1975. In view of the explosive growth in aviation industry and also in view of rapid advancement in information and computing technology, it has become necessary to update these summaries and also to extend them to other airports. With this in view Aeronautical Climatological Summaries for twenty International and National Airports using the data for the period 1998-2002 are presented in the pattern of WMO models A, B, C, D, E and Table VI in accordance with the procedures laid down in Technical Regulations and as per ICAO Annex. 3. These models are described below: MODEL A Monthly mean number of occurrences of runway visual range/ visibility and / or height of the base of the lowest cloud layer (in metres), covering more than 4/8th of the sky below specified values at the specified time. MODEL B Monthly mean number of visibility below specified values (in metres) at the specified time. P R E F A C MODEL C Monthly mean number of occurrences of height of the base (in metres) of the lowest cloud layer covering more than 4/8th of the sky below specified values at the specified time. MODEL D Monthly mean number of occurrences of concurrent wind direction (in 30° sectors) and wind speed (in knots) within specified ranges. MODEL E Monthly mean frequency of occurrences of screen temperature (°C) in specified ranges of 5 degrees of the specified time. TABLE VI Monthly mean atmospheric pressure (in hPa) at the reference level / mean sea level (for low level stations) at the standard times for surface synoptic observations. In addition to the above models and table, useful Climatological information in pictorial form based on long period data is also provided at the end of each model. These climatological summaries have been prepared by the Surface Statistics and Planning section, Office of the Additional Director General of Meteorology (Research), Pune under the guidance of Shri Thakur Prasad, Deputy Director General of Meteorology (Climatology) and Dr. T. P. Singh, Meteorologist. Valuable contributions were made by Smt. S. V. Mhasawade, A.M. I, Shri A. B. Bhole, S.A., Shri P. S. Balki, S. A. and Smt S. H. Joshi, S.O. towards the preparation of these Summaries. The required software for quality control of data, preparation of normal of meteorological parameters and tables in these models was developed by Shri A. K. Jaswal, Meteorologist at the National Data Centre, Pune. The designing and the printing of these manuscripts were done by Shri Abraham Philipose, A.M. II at the DTP and printing unit. My appreciation goes to all of them. I am hopeful that this updated publication will serve as a useful source of adequate and authentic information to aviation services. Pune – 5 Dr. (Mrs.) N. Jayanthi September 2006 DDGM (WF) LACD of ADGM(R) I N T R O D U C I n t r o d u c t i o n Delhi is the capital city of India since old times. Delhi is one of the most historic capitals in the world and two of its monuments- Qutub Minar and Humayun’s Tomb are known as world heritage sites. Delhi is today, one of the fastest growing cities of India which is having a population of around 13.8 million. It is also capital of the state of Delhi. It is widely spread over 1483 square kilometers and is surrounded by two states- Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. It is the gateway to India, being well linked by road, rail and air to important cities of the country. It serves as a perfect introduction to the cultural wealth, the complexities and dynamism of India. Delhi, besides being the seat of Central Government, has an economy supported by tourism, commerce, and a growing information technology industry. It is also epicenter of the nation’s politics, economy and culture. It has a number of leading educational institutes for higher learning, training, research and development in science, medicine, engineering and technology. With the development of architectural infrastructure facilities, Delhi plays host to a number of national and international events including sports related events, conferences and seminars. Delhi is an international hub of export and import of goods in the country. Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi (Lat. 28º34’ N and Long. 77º07’ E) is situated at Palam in the south-western part of the city at an altitude of 233 metres. The airport is one of India’s main domestic and international gateways. It is connected with major cities of India and other countries. It has two terminals. Terminal- 2 at new building of the airport is used for international flights while Terminal-1 (older airport Palam) is exclusively used for domestic operations. It has two runways-main runway 10-28 is about 4 km long and an auxiliary runway 09-27 is about 3 km long. Runway 10-28 is equipped with CAT III-B instrument landing system which is one of the few runways in Asia. It is the first Indian airport which is operating two runways simultaneously. The airport is the home of several Indian airlines including Air Sahara, Spice Jet, Alliance Air and IndiGo Airlines. Some airlines use this airport as their second hub after Mumbai’s CSI Airport. It is used by various national and international airlines. The airport handles an average of 490 daily scheduled commercial movements including 130 international flights. The airport operates round the clock and currently handles up to 22 landing and takeoff per hour. On 30th March, 2006, the airport reached a record number of 551 of arrivals and departures. The climate of Delhi is of continental nature. The city has an extreme type of weather, very hot in summer season and very cold in winter season. Sometimes it is affected by western disturbances, mist, fog, thunderstorms, dust storms and squalls. Meteorological Office at the airport Delhi started functioning since January 1952 and is equipped with modern instruments to record and report meteorological parameters. During January and February weather in Delhi is cold. The cold wave from the Himalayan region makes winter very chilly. Sometimes western disturbances occur and give significant amount of rain in this period. Mist and fog are generally experienced in i I N T R O D U C I N N I the morning and late night hours. The mean maximum and minimum temperatures are around 23ºC and 7ºC respectively. In the month of March the weather is pleasant in Delhi where maximum and minimum temperatures are around 30ºC and 14ºC respectively. The summer season in Delhi practically starts from April and extends up to June. The weather is hot and dry and on few occasion heat wave prevails in this season. The mean maximum and minimum temperatures during this period are around 39ºC and 24ºC respectively. The monsoon season commences from last week of June and extends up to September. Average rainfall in the monsoon season is 699.0 mm which is 88% of average annual rainfall of 794.0 mm. Sometimes it rains heavily in Delhi in this season. The highest rainfall ever recorded in 24 hours is 265.8 mm on 9th July, 1972. The mean maximum and minimum temperatures in this season are around 35ºC and 25ºC respectively. During the months October and November weather is generally fair and pleasant in Delhi where mean maximum and minimum temperatures are around 31ºC and 15ºC respectively. In the month of December weather becomes cold and sometimes fog prevails in morning and late night. Sometimes western disturbances occur and give a good amount of rainfall. The maximum and minimum temperatures in this month are around 23ºC and 7ºC respectively. The highest maximum temperature and the lowest minimum temperature ever recorded at this airport are 47.5ºC on 26th May, 1984 and -2.2ºC on 1st January, 1952 respectively. ii BACK NEXT CONTENTS MODEL AMODELAMODELAMODELAMODELA MODEL B MODEL C MODEL D MODEL E TABLE VI FIGURES AERONAUTICAL CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARIES FIG. 1(a) - NO. OF WEATHER PARAMETERS FIG. 1(b) - RELATIVE HUMIDITY FIG. 1(c) - AVERAGE MONTHLY RAINFALL FIG. 2(a) - VISIBILITY - MORNING FIG. 2(b) - VISIBILITY - AFTERNOON FIG. 3(a) - CLOUD AMOUNT - MORNING FIG. 3(b) - LOW CLOUD AMOUNT - MORNING FIG.