Abstract

An integrated, remote sensing and reactive detection system is provided for detecting and confirming the presence of hazardous microbursts, macrobursts, and windshears in the general flight path of an aircraft. An infrared remote sensing system is used to seek out, detect, and provide advanced alerts of thermal gradients ahead of an aircraft which correlate with windshear conditions. The measurement of atmospheric temperature is accomplished by a scanning, multi-spectral radiometer that sweeps an approximate 60 degrees path in front of the aircraft at about a 5 hertz rate. The radiometer employs two rows of detectors that are slightly offset resulting in two simultaneous measurements of temperature that are about 7 degrees apart in elevation angle. This dual information allows the continuous measurement of the atmospheric vertical temperature gradient, or lapse rate, for use in determining the atmospheric stability, and hence the probability of microburst occurrence as well as the continuous measurement of atmospheric azimuth temperature gradient for use in detecting the existence of a negative gradient that correlates with a microburst.