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           | Description | 
           
             English: Wake Vortex Study at  Wallops Island  The  air flow from the  wing of this  agricultural plane is made visible by a technique that uses colored smoke rising from the ground. The swirl at the wingtip traces the aircraft's  wake vortex, which exerts a powerful influence on the flow field behind the plane. Because of wake vortex, the  Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires aircraft to maintain set distances behind each other when they land. A joint  NASA-FAA program aimed at boosting  airport capacity, however, is aimed at determining conditions under which  planes may fly closer together. NASA researchers are studying wake vortex with a variety of tools, from  supercomputers, to  wind tunnels, to actual flight tests in research aircraft. Their goal is to fully understand the phenomenon, then use that knowledge to create an automated system that could predict changing wake vortex conditions at airports.  Pilots already know, for example, that they have to worry less about wake vortex in rough weather because windy conditions cause them to dissipate more rapidly. 
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           | Date | 
           4 May 1990 | 
          
          
           | Source | 
           
            
             
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              This image or video was catalogued by Langley Research Centre of the United States  National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: EL-1996-00130 AND Alternate ID: L90-5919.   This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal  copyright tag is still required. See  Commons:Licensing for more information. 
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           | Author | 
            NASA Langley Research Centre (NASA-LaRC), Edited by  Fir0002 | 
          
          
           Permission ( Reusing this file) | 
           
             Public domain (see below) 
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           This file is in the  public domain because it was solely created by  NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See  Template:PD-USGov,  NASA copyright policy page or  JPL Image Use Policy.) | 
           
            
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