"iPilot" wrote in message
...
http://www1.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/200...urbulence.html


Soaring is going to get far more interesting some time soon. At least in
r.a.c



This device apparently uses a relatively high power millimeter wave radar to
look for Doppler echoes from water vapor inhomogeneities that characterize
turbulence in storms. It's not clear from the reports that it works for
clear air turbulence.

Remote detection of thermals with radars and lidars has been a fact for some
time but these systems just don't fit in gliders. Lidars might someday work
in gliders given some hoped for breakthroughs in laser efficiency.

Setting aside for a moment the rules that prohibit their use, remote
detection of thermals would change the sport, but perhaps not as much as
some people think. For example, we often see a beautiful flat bottomed
cumulus that is certainly marking a strong area of lift but by the time we
can get to it, the cloud has dissipated. The knowing the location of that
lift does not affect the outcome of the flight since we cannot make tactical
use of it.

Knowing the location of a strong core nearby would do a lot more to affect
the outcome of a flight and is technically easier to accomplish with a low
power scanning Lidar. Somehow, I feel more comfortable with this idea than
with motorgliders.

Bill Daniels