An experiment on the airfield of Tolmachevo Airport in 2018 to study the wake vortices generated by landing aircraft under various atmospheric conditions

Abstract

In order to study the wake vortices generated by landing aircrafts, we conducted an experiment on the airfield of Tolmachevo Airport in 2018, which involved the Stream Line lidar, AMK-03 sonic anemometer and MTP-5 temperature profiler. The experiment determined the limits of applicability of the radial velocity method used to obtain estimates of the parameters of wake vortices from lidar measurements, depending on the type of aircraft and the intensity of wind turbulence. An analysis of the experimental results made it possible to identify a number of features of the spatial dynamics and evolution of aircraft wake vortices during different states of the surface layer of the atmosphere. In particular, it was found that in the case of low average lateral wind speed and moderate wind turbulence, the lifetime of the vortex formed behind the landing aircraft MD-11F can reach almost 4 minutes.