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Airborne Remote Detection of Turbulence with Forward-Pointing LIDAR

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Aviation Turbulence

Abstract

Presently, the airborne remote detection of atmospheric turbulence is limited to radar-visible regions of the sky, i.e., zones that contain hydrometeors like rain or cloud droplets. The bulk of the actual turbulence, possible in clear air at all flight altitudes, evades such a remote detection, though a remote determination of aircraft-relevant physical parameters relevant to turbulence could significantly increase flight safety.

The following chapter reviews possible techniques of remote turbulence detection in clear air and identifies the most promising approaches for future aircraft. These are shown to be optical methods, i.e., LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems. Principles, as well as pros and cons of some complementary lidar techniques, are discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We will henceforth consider an aircraft-fixed reference system, i.e., \( u(R)=\overline{u}(R)+u^{\prime }(R) \) be the velocity along the aircraft motion axis R, v′ the lateral fluctuating component, and w′ the vertical component.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Oliver Reitebuch, Todd Lane, and Robert Sharman for the kind review of the present text.

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  1. DLR – German Aerospace Center, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Oberpfaffenhofen, 82234, Germany

    Patrick Sergej Vrancken

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  1. Research, National Center for Atmospheric, Boulder, Colorado, USA

    Robert Sharman

  2. School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Todd Lane

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Vrancken, P.S. (2016). Airborne Remote Detection of Turbulence with Forward-Pointing LIDAR. In: Sharman, R., Lane, T. (eds) Aviation Turbulence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23630-8_22

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