I have just looked at the aerospaceweb article on ground effects. Sorry, but I find little, in regards to ground effect, is based on reality as we understand it today.
This diagram is completely incorrect for wake vortex generation, as is the explanation describing an aircraft on final. The wingtips do not generate a vortex. The vortex from an aircaft is a result of rollup, which does not occur at the tips, but inboard of the wing section and reliant on wing configuration and flap settings.
The rollup time and distance has many associated factors.
On final, the vortex creation is constantly changing with flap settings, speed and configuration. This is NOT currently explained by any model, especially CFD...why is that? If wing dynamics and principles of flight were understood
There are many issues that may seem simple, but have not been explained by models, or even attempts to model the differences. The effect on crosswinds, headwinds, tailwinds, centerwing, and flap settings.
We have all seen the typical diagram where the aircraft wake drops, then is blown sideways by the crosswind, and there are extensive calculations that try to model that advection rate.
Yet, this has been shown to be completely wrong by field measurements using LIDAR and SODAR.
The models make no attempt to add left/right wing configuration differences, crabbing, or other aircraft/met properties into account.
Notice how the standard equation is balanced....if not, the foundation of the calculations unwraps very quickly
Does that mean that the calculations are oversimplified, need to be generalized to model, or misunderstood?