The characteristics of low level turbulence at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) under the influence of Severe Tropical Storm Wutip in June 2025 is studied. Multiple sources of turbulence observations were studied and intercomparison analysis was performed. There were more than 80 reports of windshear and turbulence received from pilots in HKIA. The aircraft data derived Eddy Dissipation Rate (EDR) data and the airline downlink EDR data was compared with those obtained from Doppler Light Detection And Ranging (LIDARs) at HKIA. The LIDAR EDR data includes both the plan position indicator (PPI) scan EDR and glide path scan EDR. It is found that there is a positive relationship between the aircraft mean EDR values with LIDAR PPI scan when considering the values of LIDAR PPI scan over the corridor, with the correlation coefficient reaching a maximum of 0.38. Due to the time window required for the calculation of LIDAR EDR data, the higher frequency peak EDR values cannot be well captured. Besides, further analysis found that the turbulence reports are found to mainly occur at times when the crosswind strength is peaked. Studying the wind strength and period suggests that during the peak wind speed, the shedding period is shorter, indicating possible vortex shedding or periodic waves. This gives better understanding on the wind characteristics when it flow across the Lantau island mountains in the vicinity of HKIA. It also demonstrates the usefulness of aircraft turbulence data for developing and verifying EDR products from meteorological instruments.
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Leung et al. (2026) studied this question.
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