Constant false alarm rate detection of wake vortices with application to a pulsed Doppler lidar system

Abstract

A 2 micron pulsed Doppler lidar system is being evaluated as a means of remotely detecting wingtip-induced vortices, i.e., wake vortices, in the approach corridor at an airport runway. The lidar system is placed beside the runway approach corridor and scanned in elevation. A structured signal processor estimates the Doppler spectra of the time sampled lidar return. A constant false alarm rate (CFAR) algorithm is applied to field test data and used to estimate the Doppler velocity profile of the cross section of space scanned by the lidar system and the size and strength of the wake vortices. The resulting CFAR detector exhibits the ability to distinguish between different aircraft sizes by the vortex strength.