Lidar wind shear detection for commercial aircraft

Abstract

National attention has focused on the critical problem of detecting and avoiding windshear since the crash on August 2, 1985, of a Lockheed L-1011 at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. As part of The NASA/FAA National Integrated Windshear Program, the authors have defined a measurable windshear hazard index that can be remotely sensed from an aircraft, to give the pilot information about the wind conditions he will experience at some later time if he continues along the present flight path. The technology analysis and end- to-end performance simulation, which measures signal-to-noise ratios and resulting wind velocity errors for competing coherent lidar systems, shows that a Ho:YAG lidar at a wavelength of 2.1 micrometers and a CO2 lidar at 10.6 micrometers can give the pilot information about the line-of-sight component of a windshear threat in a region extending from his present position to 2 to 4 km in front of the aircraft. This constitutes a warning time of 20 to 40 s, even under conditions of moderately heavy precipitation. Using these results, a Coherent Lidar Airborne Shear Sensor (CLASS), using a Q-switched CO2 laser at 10.6 micrometers , is being designed and developed for flight evaluation in early 1992.