Upper Air Measurements of Wind and Turbulence with the Combination of Doppler Lidars and Radars on Airports

Weather is one of the major causes of flight delays and accidents. Among all the weather conditions for aircrafts, wind and wind hazards like wake vortices and wind shears require to be monitored with high spatial and temporal resolution sensors in order to reduce their impact on air traffic for improving safety and / or for optimizing ATM. Among the different available sensor technologies, Doppler LIDAR sensors as remote sensors allow to obtain high spatial (5m to 200m) and temporal (1 Hz to 20 Hz) resolution and accurate wind measurements (typically 0.5m/s). But the use of these sensors remains relatively limited for ATM and few are used for operational purposes in ATM. This paper presents the developments of a new generation of Doppler LIDAR systems for measuring wind, turbulence and cloud layers around airports. Their potential combination with existing observing systems equipped with surface wind measurements, ceilometers and high resolution weather radars will be discussed given their intrinsic capabilities to measure under dry air conditions. The study will show different results obtained with such lidars installed on different airports especially at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport in Europe and the conclusions reached on the maturity of such technology to enhance existing weather observations at airports in the SESAR European ATM modernization program.