- ORGANISATION SCIENTIFIQUE ET TECHNIQUE INTERNATIONAL DU VOL A VOILE  -
 

Mountain Wave Project  

In 1948 OSTIV grew out of ISTUS, the International Study Commission for Soaring Flight, which was founded in 1930. 

Main objective of OSTIV is the promotion and coordination on an international level of sciences and technologies related to soaring flight, in particular the use and operation of sailplanes in research. OSTIV is a member of the FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale) and considers itself an innovative force in promoting air sports. 

"Explore and Fly" was the guiding principle of Walter Georgii, the great pioneer of aviation meteorology and the scientific and meteorological section of OSTIV is using his call as leitmotiv to investigate the origin and development of mesoscale meteorological phenomena. 

Results and know-how gained from these studies are not only being applied to the planning and execution of record flights, but also incorporated into methods and procedures of general aviation weather briefings as well as into the relevant stages of pilot training. 

Focal point of the ongoing and planned activities of the meteorological section is the Mountain Wave Project. Its ambitious goal is the global classification and analysis of mountain waves and their associated rotor bands

Leewaves (mountain waves) are atmospheric internal gravity waves and were discovered 1933 by German glider pilots above the Riesengebirge. Wind driven air parcels hitting a mountainlike obstacle are being deflected upwards and will, in a stably stratified atmosphere, return to their initial height setting up an oscillatory up-down motion. Such a wave system, which often exhibits typical phenomena as interference and wave breaking, is frequently made visible by stationary, lense shaped clouds, socalled lenticulars.

 

Foto: Herold/MWP	Foto: Robert Symons
The MWP-S10 facing spectacular dawn lenticulars.	Clouds of a monster rotor in the lee of the  Sierra Nevada near Bishop/USA. Rotorlift reached almost 30'000 ft and enabled a P38 to shut down engines and soar  [ more ]

Leewaves can reach stratospheric altitudes (=25km), where mother of pearl clouds cap the wave crests.

The present altitude world record in soaring flight stands at 15,460 m and was reached in the leewave of the ANDES, the longest soaring flight of 3.008 km was flown in the wave system of the ANDES too.

The Mountain Wave Project was conceived during an OSTIV seminar 1998 in Serres/France by René Heise and Klaus Ohlmann and attracted several enthusiastic scientists/pilots since. Among them are physicist  Wolf D. Herold, who has played a crucial role, both, as scientist and pilot, in the Thermal Wave Project carried out at NCAR (National Center of Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado) and meteorologist Carsten Lindemann (Free University of Berlin), a specialist in airborne measurement and remote sensing, who will provide sensors and data recording equipment

Main topics are: 

• detection and determination of physical processes in the atmosphere, as well as their associated synoptic characteristics, which play a dominant role in the generation and development of mountain waves. 

• investigation of rotor bands, determination of their location, spatial extension and classification of concomitant turbulence 

• high resolution measurement of relevant meteorological variables (e.g., potential temperature, vertical and horizontal wind, humidity...) 

cross-section recorded during a flight on the 3th of December 1999 Airfield Chapelco/Argentina

 

• concerning to filter the thermal and wave- dynamic upwind parts of the logger-data (classification of vertical speed, height and frequency) a  statistical  evaluation of  ~ 100 IGC-Files of flights above the Andes- (San Juan -Fireland) is developed

• visualisation of the rotors/regions of turbulence in a graphical representation of relevant topographical features and development of forecasting tools for pilots and meteorologists 

                

waveflights in the vicinity of the Lure mountain/southern France (OSTIV-seminar in Serres)

 

• verification of mesoscale forecast models and adjustment of the applied parameterisations, application in numerical forecasting of dangerous weather phenomena 

•  since 2002 experimental forecasts of lee waves for various regions can be found on the MWP homepage, as well as on the selfbriefing system pc_met of the German Weather Service.Two forecasts are available: an orographic turbulence prediction - based on the determination of the Scorer parameter at every grid point and a generalized leewave prediction based on the calculation of the behavior of streamlines on selected grid points. Due to the low resolution the generalized features   of the model- orography cannot resolve  effects of hills of less than 1. 500 m height or local flow phenomena  on a horizontally scale below 10km  

• application of the acquired data and scientific results to pilot training, in particular to the design of training missions and simulator sessions, as well as, to air traffic route planning

Technical support in preparation of the aircraft, handling of shipping as well as on site rests with M. Just, Aircraft Inspector and Technical Specialist with Stemme GmbH. 

First results from activities in the Alps have been presented during the OSTIV Congress at the World Soaring Championships in August 1999 in Bayreuth/Germany. 

A major effort towards the goal of a global classification of mountain waves has been launched in October í99, when a highly competent team of experienced mountain pilots and scientists collected data on the wave systems in the Andes. San Martin de los Andes in Argentina was chosen to be base camp for the flying operations. In addition to several transsections flown in the wave systems, a number of successful world record attempts has been completed. The most spectacular results of the MWP activities was achieved a year later, when K. Ohlmann set a new world distance record of 2.464km in the lee of the Andes. He had extend this world-record on january 2003 with an incredible distance of 3.008,8 k. 

MWP- Project Manager:  

René Heise
Wallstrasse 89
10179 Berlin

Tel.: +49 (0) 30- 229 43 17
eMail: Rene.Heise(at)t-online.de

List of publications:

MetPanel OSTIV ¹ (2009): Weather Forecasting for Soaring Flight, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), No. 1038, 76 p.

Doernbrack, A., Heise, R. , Kuettner, J. (2006): Wellen und Rotoren, promet,  32, 1-2, p. 18-24

Lindemann, C., Heise, R. , Herold, W-D., Prenosil, Th., Ruhtz, Th. (2002): Leewaves in the Andes Region, Mountain Wave Project (MWP) of OSTIV, 26th International Conference on Alpine Meteorology, Poster
Innsbruck, Austria

Lindemann, C., Heise, R. , Herold, W-D.(2001): Leewaves in the Andes Region, Mountain Wave Project (MWP) of OSTIV, submitted to XXVII. OSTIV Congress, Mafikeng, South Africa, TECHNICAL SOARING, Vol. 32, number 3,  ( TS-article )

Heise, R. (2001): Orografische Turbulenz als Forschungsobjekt und sportliche Herausforderung, Mitteilungen der Deutschen Meteorologischen Gesellschaft, 3, p. 13-25 ( online- article )

Knueppel, J. (2000): Gliding Aviation Medicine, High Altitude Aspects and  Mountain Wave Project 1999, St. Martin de los Andes, Argentina, Poster, Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrtmedizin, Berlin, ( online-article )

Selection of lectures:

Heise, R. (2009): Die numerische Modellierung und Simulation von Leewellensystemen - eine Kurzübersicht für Wellenflugpiloten (PDF 3,0 MB);   Ansätze der Einbindung von empirischen Positionen des Systems Rotor-Welle, von Wellenvorhersagen und statistisch gefilterten Wellenaufwindbändern in einem Geographischen Informationssystem (GIS) (PDF 1,5 MB), Mittelgebirgswellen-Symposium, Inst. für Meteorologie und Klimatologie, Leibniz-Universität Hannover 

Hacker, J., Heise, R., Herold, W.-D., Ohlmann, K. (2008): Where The Wild Winds Rule - with the Mountain Wave Project on record chase, research mission and adventure trip to the edge of the  stratosphere, International Aerospace Exhibition, Conference Center, Berlin (ILA-Pressrelease,  Press -Aerokurier )

Hacker, J. et.al. (2007): Measuring mountain waves and turbulence at up 12km altitude over the Andes in South America using an instrumented motorised glider, 14th National Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (AMOS) Conference in ADELAIDE (AUSTRALIA), ( PDF-File )

Herold, W-D., Heise, R. (2003): 15 m/s up - 4000ft down Im Segelflugzeug und Airbus durch Rotorwalzen und mountain waves, Lufthansa-Verkehrsfliegerschule, Bremen, (more...)

Herold, W-D., Heise, R. (2002):  Forschungslabor Segelflugzeug-  In den Föhnstürmen über den Anden, planeterde - 2002 jahr der geowissenschaften, Leipzig,  Multimediashow ( Press )

Ohlmann, K. (2001):  World records flights in a Stemme & News of Wave Project, BGA -Conference, Nottingham (GBR)

Herold, W-D.(2000):  Surfing the waves over the Andes-  with a Stemme S10 and OSTIV 's  Mountain Wave Project in Argentina, SSA- Convention, Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)

Academic support concerning pupil's work and  degree disertation:

2009: zwei Diplomarbeiten (diploma thesis) - Auswertung von Turb-Messflügen in der TUPUNGATO- ACONCAGUA Region;   Erkennung von Leewellen in GPS-Files von Segelflügen in den Alpen

Graefenstein, Helge (2007): Meteorologische und geographische Vorraussetzungen für einen 2000km-Zielflug mit dem Segelflugzeug, Facharbeit Gymnasium Oppenheim        ( PDF-File )

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