Airborne Forward-Looking Interferometer Turbulence Investigation

Smith, William L.; Kireev, Stanislav; Gimmestad, Gary G.; West, Leanne L.; Liu, Xu; Schaffner, Philip R.; Murray, John

doi:10.1364/fts.2007.fthb2

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…There have been very few experimental programs devoted to the use of infrared imaging systems on board airborne platforms and so the work here must rely largely on inferences from satellite and ground-based measurements augmented by theoretical and modelling studies. Smith et al [3] developed an infrared interferometer for probing the atmosphere from the ground and have also used the instrument on airborne and ship-borne platforms. The Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) uses cooled detectors and can measure the infrared (IR) spectrum from 3.3-19.2 µm in a single field-of-view [4][5][6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All of these instruments are either looking upwards or downwards and for the good reason that investigating infrared radiation works well when either the feature of interest is emitting (against a cold background) or absorbing (against a warm background). Gimmestad et al and colleagues [3,16,17] used an airborne interferometric instrument to look in the forward direction in studies of atmospheric turbulence. The problem of viewing the atmosphere along a horizontal path or towards the horizon comprises both emission and absorption processes and is thus complicated and can lead to ambiguity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Detection and Avoidance of Atmospheric Aviation Hazards Using Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging

Prata

2020

Remote Sensing

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Atmospheric aviation hazards due to turbulence, poor visibility, high-altitude ice crystals and volcanic ash and gases are known problems for aviation and can cause both economic damage to engines and airframes as well as having the potential to cause the engines to stall in flight with possible loss of the aircraft. Current space- and ground-based assets allow observations of some of these hazards and their detection and movement can be forecast using modern computer weather forecasting and dispersion models. These largely strategic resources have proved very valuable but somewhat limited in the tactical sense, where commercial aviation must make rapid decisions in order to avoid an undetected or un-forecast hazardous cloud or atmospheric condition. Here we investigate the use of multi-spectral (two channels or more) infrared imaging from an aircraft perspective, and show that it is possible to use this information to provide tactical awareness tools for use by aviators and other stakeholders. This study has a strong focus on volcanic ash as an aviation hazard but also includes applications to some forms of clear air turbulence (CAT), to high-altitude ice crystals (HAIC) and windblown desert dust. For volcanic ash detection, the research shows that current two-channel satellite-based infrared techniques provide acceptable discrimination and quantification, but two-channel infrared imaging airborne solutions have significant drawbacks. Because of the limitation of two-channel methods, infrared spectroscopic techniques are investigated and it is shown they can significantly reduce the confusion caused by meteorological hydrometeors and potentially provide information on other atmospheric hazards to aviation, such as HAIC and some forms of turbulence. Not only are these findings important for on-going efforts to incorporate IR imaging onto commercial aircraft, but they also have relevance to the increasing use of drones for hazard detection, research and monitoring. Uncooled infrared bolometric imaging cameras with spectroscopic capabilities are available and we describe one such system for use on airborne platforms.

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