UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
FACULTY OF PHYSICS

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2024-11-22 2:20
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Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2024 Meeting


Section: Atmosphere and Earth Science; Environment Protection


Title:
Fog events in the Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport area


Authors:
Alex VLAD (1,2), Gabriela IORGA (1,3), Bogdan ANTONESCU (1)


*
Affiliation:
1) University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, Romania

2) National Institute for Aerospace Research "Elie Carafoli" - INCAS, Bucharest, Romania

3) University of Bucharest, Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Analytical Chemistry and Physical Chemistry, Bucharest, Romania


E-mail
vlad.florentinalex@gmail.com


Keywords:
Fog, METAR, visibility


Abstract:
Because of the visibility reduction, a high risk for air traffic appears when fog phenomenon appears in the vicinity of airports. Therefore, we look for fog events around the largest Romanian Airport Otopeni (OTP, 44.57°N, 26.1°E, 95 m a.s.l.). Due to its geographic position, the OTP airport is an important air traffic hub on the routes between western and eastern world destinations. We used METAR observational data - Present Weather (PW) Group, from January 2010 to December 2023. A number of 100031 observations (frequency - 30 min) were analyzed, fog was defined as the event lasting more than 1h. A total of 1461 fog events were identified during the studied period. Statistical analysis was performed using Openair R package. A database of fog events for 2010-2023 was established. We found a mean climatological number of 104 events per year. The highest number of events (about 175) was in 2014, followed by a decrease (about 3.5 times) to about 50 events in 2023. Fog appears mostly during winter months (November, December, January) and during late evening and early morning, peaks shortly after the sunrise, then dissipates due to daytime heating. This correlates well with the presence of air moisture. Associations with prevailing winds on NE-SW directions were found. The longest fog event was encountered in December 2011 and was classified as an advection fog event.


Acknowledgement:
AV acknowledges the partial funding from the NO Grants 2014-2021, under Project contract no. 31/2020, EEA-RO-NO-2019-0423 project. Dr. B. Uritescu, Dr. G. Grigoras, Dr. G. Stoica are also gratefully acknowledged for topographical map of Romania.