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Abstract
A sky Lantern is also known as Kongming lantern. Legend has it that sky lanterns were strategically used to deliver military intelligences in Three Kingdoms period and, nowadays, people use them as media for praying and wishing. In Taiwan, Pingxi, a small district originally famous for its mining industry, is becoming the most popular tourist attraction for launching sky lanterns. Each year, thousands of tourists gather together to join the sky lanterns activities in Lantern festival, which has flourished the local tourist industry and brought a tremendous income of tourism. However, launching sky lanterns also derives problems like public safety and environmental pollutions. By studying the history of sky lanterns , process of launching sky lanterns, and production of sky lanterns, this study will further discuss on how the environmental and meteorological conditions in Pingxi District will affect feasibility of launching sky lanterns. On top of that, by pointing out factors that can cause potential danger, relevant preventative measures can be established for the public to reduce potential disasters.
This study verifies the applicability of regulations of launching sky lanterns in Pingxi District through literature review, comprehensive analysis of meteorological data, and results of launching tests in tethered-balloon method. By analyzing fire statistics charts, cases of wildfire, and temperature and relative humidity charts, the results confirm the feasibility of launching sky lanterns in Pingxi District.
The results shows that the average annual temperature is 21℃, average annual relative humidity is 80%, the prevailing wind direction is northeast, and average wind speed is 4 m / s in Pingxi District, which confirms the feasibility of launching sky lanterns in Pingxi District. The results also show current conditions for launching sky lantern are between 15℃ ~ 23℃, relative humidity from 63% to 88%, average wind speed below 5m / s, which are in accordance with the existing safety provisions. Although locations for launching sky lanterns are regulated, tourists still have difficulties of determining the weather conditions, wind speed, and the launching process, which can lead to fail to launch sky lanterns. Hence, professional guidance and proper launching process shall be put into to reduce the potential danger.
This study is the precedent research on environments and conditions of launching sky lanterns. Lanterns adapted in this study are commercially available models and tested in tethered-balloon method with only single sky lantern at a time. Therefore, the criterion for launching locations is stringent. For future studies, it is suggested that more advanced equipments shall be utilized, more launching locations shall be chosen , different patterns of sky lanterns shall be used to collect more complete data. Due to time frame and limitations of equipments, the statistics of relation between landing area and wildfire area is not collected in this study. In conclusion, launching process is affected by meteorological factors, for instance, temperature, relative humidity and wind speed in particular. It is suggested that future researcher can further investigate on factors above to obtain more objective data for policy makers' references.
Key words: Sky lantern launching, Tethered-balloon method, Patterns of sky lanterns, Meteorological factors
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