Flight tests of a clear-air turbulence alerting system

Abstract

The detection of clear-air turbulence (CAT) ahead of an aircraft in real-time by an infrared (IR) radiometer is discussed. It is noted that the alter time and reliability depend on the band-pass of the IR filter used and on the altitude of the aircraft. Results of flights tests indicate that a bandpass of 20 to 40 microns appears optimal for altering the aircraft crew to CAT at times before encounter of 2 to 9 min. Alert time increases with altitude, as the atmospheric absorption determining the horizontal weighting is reduced.

Authors

• Kurkowski, R. L. NASA Ames Research Center
• Kuhn, P. M. Raven Systems and Research, Inc.
• Stearns, L. P. NOAA