Pulsed Doppler Lidar for Terminal Area Monitoring of Wind and Wake Hazards

Pulsed infrared Doppler radar (Doppler lidar) offers a unique capability to generate high resolution, three-dimensional distributions of wind data. Appropriately processed, these systems are used in the airport terminal area to map hazardous wind shear and turbulence levels and to detect and track wake vortices. Within the past few years, continued rapid developments of these systems have enabled permanent installations at airports, including Hong Kong and St. Louis. This paper provides a brief background on how this technology works and how it can and is being applied to improve aviation safety and system efficiency.