Remote thermal detection

On Wednesday, October 5, 2016 at 2:04:16 PM UTC-7, John Cochrane wrote:
I'm also a fan.

No, it won't turn the sport into a video game, any more than vario and GPS did. Flying -- and racing -- airplanes without engines will always be a challenge.

It will be the single greatest increase in performance since fiberglass (also loudly predicted to kill the sport).

Thermal detectors will end start gate roulette, gaggling and leeching and team flying. There is no need to wait for other gliders if you can detect thermals on your own.

Thermal detectors will also enhance safety. Finding that last thermal might help an outlining. More importantly, if you really know there are NO thermals out there, you get busy with the business of landing!

Even 200 feet will be of immense use. Really, all the great team flyers are getting for their efforts is sampling air 200 feet away. Imagine if you had two guys 200 feet ahead one on each side 45 degrees -- any of us could win the worlds. Think of how many great contests have been won or lost by missing one thermal by a few hundred feet.

Contrary to earlier posts, so what if it doesn't work all the time! Give me a thermal detector that works 200 feet out 1/4 of the time and I can win any contest!

More physical principles:

Doppler Lidar, of course. Somewhere I saw the military is working on a portable lidar based system that detects crosswinds to make shooting more accurate. That's just what we need.

Non-doppler lidar. Thermals have more dust in them than surrounding air. See the concentration of dust, bugs, etc. and you know where the thermal is..

Radar, as mentioned. Tuned to bugs, birds, moisture gradients, etc.

Passive radar. Radar needs power. But why shine your own light when the FAA does it for you? Monitoring the primary and return echoes you should be able to see what's out ahead with no primary source.

Shimmer. As reported here, Boeing was working on a system to process visual images for shimmer to see clear air turbulence. Set up video camera to take pictures every second or two, software to compare the images, and enhance shimmer induced turbulence, thus seeing thermal structure.

More optical. Process optical images to see birds! (and other gliders) Again, take two optical images a few seconds apart, signal process to correct for glider motion, then show anything that's moving. (The last two, since they only involve taking pictures, would be arguably legal under US rules too. SHHH. )

Humidity. Infra-red cameras tuned to moisture frequencies, like the satellite moisture channel. Thermals are more moist than the surrounding environment.

You don't need to see motion, you only need to see structure of the air and you can deduce motion.

Bring it on!

John Cochrane (Flame suit on)

John, I completely agree. Many of our most important scientific advances are based on improving our ability to "see" the world around us. Telescopes, microscopes, radar, the list goes on and on. I'm eagerly awaiting improvements in thermal detection for sailplanes. I don't see it taking away the fun or the magic. There's still lots to explore.

Craig