A new Simulation Scheme for Radar Signatures of Raindrops in Wake Vortices

In recent years, wake vortex monitoring in real time has emerged as one of the key challenges in air traffic control at landing or taking-off. In rainy weather, wake vortex is visible by Radar due to the motion of raindrops in it, whereas more usual Lidar sensors become blind. In this paper, a new simulation scheme based on the raindrops' statistical distribution has been proposed for evaluating the radar signatures of wake vortices in rainy weather. Firstly, the raindrops' number concentration and velocity distribution for each diameter class are computed for a given wake vortex velocity model. Secondly, the raindrops' RCS and the DSD model are computed. Thirdly, the contribution of radar average received power and Doppler signatures from each diameter class of raindrops in the radar cell are integrated. At last, the simulated radar signatures are calibrated by real radar data and the effectiveness of the simulation scheme is validated.