Aircraft trailing vortices may pose a potential risk to following aircraft. In the 1970s empirically motivated separation standards between consecutive aircraft were established. They still apply. These aircraft separations limit the capacity of congested airports and the growth of the air traffic significantly. These traffic limitations are especially drastic at airports with closely spaced runways like Frankfurt and Paris CDG. In order to handle the expected increasing amount of traffic, the knowledge about the safety issues caused by wake vortices has to be improved. In the past, experimental wake vortex prediction and monitoring systems have been deployed. Currently, the most common sensors to collect data from turbulences like wake vortices are Lidar systems. They are able to deliver very accurate data, but are also sensitive to the weather conditions like rain and fog. On the other hand, radar can be used to measure turbulences as well. Theoretical studies and trials conducted by different organisations have shown that X-band radars are well suited for this task. Since 2006 THALES conducted three trials using the X-band ground surveillance radar BOR-A to monitor wake vortex encounters, and to record data for later analysis and study. With a radar range resolution of 40 m, a large amount of data has been recorded. The Doppler resolution of 0.2 m/s allows an analysis of the speed distribution inside a wake vortex in detail. These trials have proved that X-band radar is able to monitor wake vortices in all weather conditions like light to heavy rain, fog and a turbulent atmosphere, with the capability to monitor a large air volume with a reasonable high update rate. Wake vortices caused by medium aircraft, e.g. A320 and B737, could be detected as well as wake vortices from heavy or super heavy aircraft. This is essential for a realistic traffic mix. Long time data collection trials are planned for different airports to obtain wake vortex data matching to all important situations. These data will be used to develop techniques for wake vortex detection to improve the safety on airports. One application is the risk assessment according to extreme wind conditions. Moreover, an exhaustive data base of airport climatology can be obtained. For operational use of wake vortex sensors, it is necessary to perform a real-time processing of the data delivered by the sensor. This data stream can be exploited to track wake vortices (transport, decay, rebound) in extreme weather conditions like wind burst (wind under storm, turbulent atmosphere, wind shear) or no wind (foggy weather).


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    Title :

    Wake vortex monitoring campaigns using X-band radar


    Additional title:

    Überwachung von Nachlaufwirbeln mit dem X-band-Radar


    Contributors:
    Meier, Uwe (author)


    Publication date :

    2009


    Size :

    5 Seiten, 7 Bilder, 6 Quellen


    Remarks:

    (nicht paginiert)


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Storage medium


    Language :

    English




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