Performance of LIDAR- and radar-based turbulence intensity measurement in comparison with anemometer-based turbulence intensity estimation based on aircraft data for a typical case of terrain-induced turbulence in association with a typhoon

The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) provides low-level turbulence alerting service for the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) through the windshear and turbulence warning system (WTWS). In the WTWS, turbulence intensities along the flight paths of the airport are estimated based upon correlation equations established between the surface anemometer data and the turbulence data from research aircraft before the opening of the airport. The research aircraft data are not available on day-to-day basis. The remote sensing meteorological instruments, such as the Doppler light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and radar, may be used to provide direct measurements of turbulence intensities over the runway corridors. The performances of LIDAR- and radar-based turbulence intensity data are studied in this paper based on actual turbulence intensity measurements made on 423 commercial jets for a typical case of terrain-induced turbulence in association with a typhoon. It turns out that, with the tuning of the relative operating characteristic (ROC) curve between hit rate and false alarm rate, the LIDAR-based turbulence intensity measurement performs better than the anemometer-based estimation of WTWS for turbulence intensity at moderate level or above. On the other hand, the radar-based measurement does not perform as well when compared with WTWS. By combining LIDAR- and radar-based measurements, the performance is slightly better than WTWS, mainly as a result of contribution from LIDAR-based measurement. As a result, the LIDAR-based turbulence intensity measurement could be used to replace anemometer-based estimate for non-rainy weather conditions. Further enhancements of radar-based turbulence intensity measurement in rain would be necessary.