Aircraft Wake Tracking Analysis

NASA has recently begun a program to improve terminal area productivity (capacity) that will serve to simultaneously save airline operating costs and improve aviation safety. Reduction of aircraft spacing during instrument flight rules (IFR) conditions requires a thorough understanding of environmental effects on wake vortex transport and decay mechanisms. In the proposed program, existing algorithms for processing coherent lidar data to locate and track aircraft wake vortices and to display the wake structure are to be expanded. A currently available database of wake measurements made at Stapleton International Airport will be analyzed with existing algorithms for wake tracks and wake strengths. Tracks will be correlated with available environmental data and analyzed for wake decay and transport mechanisms. A 2D Kalman hydro-code analysis will be upgraded and applied to these data and the results assessed for capability of the Kalman procedure to identify wake structure. An analysis of the requirements for implementation in 3D with a high PRF system will be developed and incorporated into the existing real-time processor using a limited 3D grid and evaluated for capability to handle an upgrade to a high PRF. Memory and CPU requirements for a 3D implementation of the Kalman analysis will be determined and a design for an upgraded real-time processor will be developed.