KaNeesha's Blog

 For this weeks post I will be talking about the effects that lightning strikes have in the aviation world. Since aircrafts fly so high in our atmosphere they are prone to all kinds of atmospheric anomalies, including lightning. " In aviation, lightning strikes are actually very common. In the US, it’s estimated that each commercial plane is hit by lightning at least once every year.  Lightning is most common near the equator, whereas the least lightning activity occurs over the oceans and polar areas ( Boeing )." (Rekosuo 2020) Most strikes happen during the planes ascend and descent phases. the plane needs to be between 5k and 15k ft for this strike to happen. Also, in order for lightning strikes to occur, the temperature has to be near zero and rain needs to be present.  I picked this specific phenomenon becuase of how often it happens. " In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a system in place to track lightning strikes on commer...

 " The air traffic control in the United States is run by the FAA. It has five divisions for its air traffic control system, namely “Air Traffic Control System Command Center”, “Air Route Traffic Control Centers”, “Air Traffic Control Tower”, “Terminal Radar Approach Control” and “Flight Service Station”." ( Freudenrich 2021) There are five different entities when dealing with Air Traffic Control that all work hand in hand with each other. They all have many similarities while also being very different. For this blog post I decided to compare the Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) and Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON).  Both the ATCT and the TRACON play major roles in the ATC world. The ATCT is located at every airport, air station, air base and anywhere else in the world that allows landing and takeoff or any aircraft. "Towers handle all takeoff, landing, and ground traffic." (  Freudenrich  2021) The tower is basically the control center for all traffic i...