The 8th Conference on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology

P11.1
INTEGRATION OF MULTIPLE METEOROLOGICAL SENSOR OBSERVATIONS FOR WAKE VORTEX BEHAVIOR COMPARISON

Michael P. Matthews, MIT Lincoln Lab, Lexington, MA; and A. P. Denneno

The hazard that wake turbulence presents to following aircraft while operating in the terminal area requires the use of minimum separations between aircraft on final approach. In Instrumented Flight Rules (IFR) conditions this can be a significant constraint on the airport arrival rate. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center has been researching the development of the Aircraft Vortex Spacing System (AVOSS), which would dynamically change aircraft arrival separations based upon atmospheric conditions and an understanding of vortex behavior (Hinton, 1995).

As part of this effort, a collection of meteorological sensor systems have been deployed by Lincoln Laboratory and NASA Langley at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (Matthews et al., 1997). These sensors, along with many existing FAA and NWS systems, are used to create profiles of the atmosphere at the DFW airport. The suite of sensors available for wake vortex comparison include a Radian LAP-3000 profiler, two Remtech PA-2 sodars, a 150 foot instrumented tower, two nearby Terminal Doppler Weather Radars (TDWR), and the NWS sounding at Fort Worth.

The greatest challenge in the collection of all this meteorological information, is preparing a single atmospheric profile for the wake vortex behavior models. In post-processing, a human can interpret all of the data and create a profile based upon known sensor limitations and analysis of the data. However, a future AVOSS system will require real-time atmospheric profiles representing the state of the atmosphere to apply the wake vortex behavior models. To do this, an automated algorithm is required to perform the data quality editing and data fusion of sensor data.

This paper is an overview of the sensor systems available to the wake vortex behavior algorithms and the AVOSS Winds Analysis System (AWAS) that performs the automated data editing and fusion of the atmospheric winds at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.

References:

1. Hinton, D. A.: "Aircraft Vortex Spacing System (AVOSS) Conceptual Design", NASA Technical Memorandum 110184, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, 1995

2. Matthews, M. P., et. al.: "Planetary Boundary Layer Measurements for the Understanding of Aircraft Wake Vortex Behavior", 7th Conference on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology, Long Beach, California, February 2-7, 1997

* This work is sponsored by the NASA Langley Research Center. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the U.S. Goverment.

+ Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Air Force.

The 8th Conference on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology