Intensity-Based Algorithm for the Identification and Tracking of Airplane Wing-Tip Vortices

In this work, intensity-based techniques to detect and track large aircraft vortices from wind Doppler LIDAR measurements were investigated. The ground-based Doppler LIDAR system allows for the ability to track an aircraft's wing-tip vortices for several minutes after a flyby. Once identified, the characteristics of the vortices can be examined including core separation, velocity, and radial size. The variability of the near ground-surface conditions can change the vortices drop rate, as well as cause the vortex to twist and deform unpredictably. Correlation techniques are applied to LIDAR scans in order identify a region of interest with wing-tip vortices. To estimate the spatial shift of the vortices, a Block matching (BM) algorithm is employed to obtain the vortices' shift between sequential LIDAR scans. Additionally, a Kalman filter is used to track the positions of the wing-tip vortices to the ground-surface. Comparisons between measured and estimated positions of the wing-tip vortices are presented.