The frequency of aircraft encountering the wake of other aircraft is analyzed for given aircraft, movement, and meteorological data. The method considers the descent and decay of wake vortices for a given stratification and turbulence-kinetic-energy dissipation rate, and the advection with ambient horizontal and vertical wind. An encounter is characterized in this study by the distance between the position of a follower aircraft and the centerline of a wake vortex behind the vortex generator, and by the wake-induced lift forces or roll moments on the encountering aircraft. A linear model is used for an efficient identification of potential wake-vortex encounters for all flight segments in dense traffic regions. The method is applied to radar-observed traffic over North America in 46 days in 2010/2011, and validated against pilot-reported wake encounters and automated in situ turbulence reports. Most upper-level encounters are found for medium-size aircraft on nearly parallel flight routes during descent. En route encounters of wakes from heavy aircraft flying 1000 ft higher occur relatively rarely. The frequency of wake-vortex encounters increases with the square of air-traffic density.
Aircraft Wake-Vortex Encounter Analysis for Upper Levels
Journal of Aircraft ; 52 , 4 ; 1277-1285
2014-09-01
9 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Aircraft Wake-Vortex Encounter Analysis for Upper Levels
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