Enhancing Global Aviation Safety with Micro Pulse LiDAR

Sigma Space Staff

火山灰是对欧洲，亚洲和南美正常气体交通运营的反复障碍，这是由于潜在的喷气发动机损坏是由浓密的灰烬中的剃须刀颗粒造成的。

A notable example is the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland that shut-down air traffic throughout Western Europe for seven days, with intermittent closings necessary as new ash plumes continued to enter the European airspace. More than 300 airports were closed, 100,000 flights were cancelled, and 10 million passengers were impacted. This economic disaster prompted research organizations to place more emphasis on developing effective volcanic ash monitoring systems.

Evaluation of aerosols detection networks for aviation

To address the need for better information about volcanic ash events, the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) asked Météo-France (MF), the French national meteorological service, to focus on the ash issue. MF set out todetermine the best method of providing accurate information about the size and concentration of volcanic particles from the ground up to a minimum of 12 kilometres altitude。

随后的研究工作包括以下活动：

• 跟踪大气中的火山灰或灰尘的羽毛

• 了解当地的空气质量

• Providing warnings to air traffic controllers, meteorologists, and industrial sites related to aerosol events

在2012年夏季，使用沙漠灰尘作为代理，MF收集的数据是由几个LiDAR传感器和天花板和原位测量的数据，并使用气球传播的粒子柜台和飞机传感器来评估其在跟踪气溶胶方面的有效性。

使用各种传感器和仪器的相关位置，数值天气预测（NWP）用于forecast different synoptic weather, considering the following factors:

• Vicinity of main air routes

• 来自冰岛和意大利火山散发的地中海的大西洋海岸的覆盖范围

• Impact on MOCAGE (Modéle de Chimie Atmosphérique de Grande Echelle), the French model for chemical species transport

Results of Network Study Point to MiniMPL

在MF进行了初步评估后，研究了几种网络设计，以确定哪种网络设计提供了最佳的成本/收益率。根据成本和健壮性的标准，MF购买了六个Sigma Space MiniMPL LiDAR sensors。

“我们决定将五个minimpl放在里尔的固定位置，trappes，brest，momuy和aleria，”said JeanLuc Lampin, Studies and Development Engineer MétéoFrance.“第六个最小值被保存为移动激光雷达。如果发生灰烬事件，火山灰咨询中心将决定在大气循环和羽流的位置以获得最佳覆盖范围的最佳部署地点。”

In the future, additional MPL’s will be added to the inventory to expand coverage and develop a comprehensive nation-wide network.

MiniMPL provides new atmospheric details critical to aviation safety

MF的3,100名员工专注于开发基础设施和领先的技术，以收集气象观察，以更好地了解当前的大气状态。大气研究对于安全的机场运营至关重要。

To improve global and regional weather modelling and forecasting, MF operates a hybrid network of aerosol LiDAR sensors with a re-deployable mobile component for volcanic ash early warning and detection.

The MiniMPL’s ability to automaticallymeasure depolarization制作表征研究人员可行的气溶胶类型。

“Minimpl网络在Météofrance方面表现出色，”主任说案郑光学工程at Sigma Space.“By continuously monitoring the atmosphere with a network of depolarization LiDAR sensors, possible air-traffic interruptions due to volcanic ash or major dust events can be prevented or mitigated.”

The MiniMPL uses a laser with a范围高达15公里，以及双极化。双极化反向散射测量值允许非常高的精度 - 大于0.7％。该数据使当局能够discriminate between the occurrence of pure water clouds and the presence of volcanic ash plumes, ash/water cloud mixtures, and ash concentration profiles。分析所有测量数据并在几秒钟内报告。

提升大气监测

由Sigma空间设计的微脉冲LIDAR（MPL）仪器，可帮助科学家，气象学家和空气质量专业人士监视气溶胶，以更好地了解我们大气的结构。

MPL的远程功能和高质量信号提高了数据捕获过程的效率和准确性，以改善大气监测。MPL最初是为NASA设计的，它使用了安全的激光器，精密光子计数和内置数据分析来提供最佳的信噪比，因此是此类别中最可靠的信息。

Sigma Space is part of Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B; hexagon. com), a leading global provider of information technologies that drive quality and productivity improvements across geospatial and industrial enterprise applications.

For more information, visit:www.micropulseLiDAR.com