Measuring wake turbulence using Mode S radar data
Summary
Increasing landing capacity is important to reduce delays and therefore costs, fuel burn and emissions. Decreasing separation distances between aircraft is a way to increase the landing capacity. A safe distance between aircraft depends, among other things, on the level of turbulence an aircraft experiences. Turbulence can be caused by wind or weather conditions, but also by wake vortices generated by nearby aircraft. Therefore, aircraft cannot fly too close behind each other and separation minima have been established by ICAO. To increase landing capacity, LVNL will implement a recategorisation and time based separation, a project which is called RECAT-TBS, at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol by the end of this year to safely decrease these separation minima.
The goal of this thesis is to implement an algorithm that can detect and measure wake turbulence in the approach area using Mode S radar data. This can give insight in a possible increase in the number of wake turbulence encounters or might yield a warning system when decreasing the separation distances in final approach by the end of this year. The algorithm that will be analysed is an algorithm proposed in a paper by Xavier Olive and Junzi Sun. They implemented and analysed the algorithm for en-route air traffic to detect turbulence. The question is whether this algorithm can also be used or adapted to be applicable for approaching air traffic and if it is possible to distinguish wake turbulence encounters.