Experimental Study of Aircraft Wake Vortices on the Airfield of Tolmachevo Airport in 2018

Abstract

In order to study the wake vortices of landing aircraft, we carried out an experiment on the airfield of Tolmachevo Airport in 2018 using Stream Line lidar, an AMK-03 sonic anemometer, and an MTP-5 temperature profiler. The limits of applicability of the method of radial velocity in estimation of wake vortex parameters from lidar measurements were determined for different aircraft types and wind turbulence strength. The analysis of the experimental results makes it possible to identify features of the spatial dynamics and evolution of aircraft wake vortices under different states of the surface air layer. In particular, we found that the lifetime of a vortex generated behind a large MD-11F aircraft on landing can reach 4 min in the case of low average crosswind speed and moderate wind turbulence.