Two-step locating method for aircraft wake vortices based on Gabor filter and velocity range distribution

Aircraft wake is a pair of strong counter-rotating vortices generated behind a flying aircraft, which might be dangerous to the following aircrafts. The real-time and precise locating of aircraft wake vortex-core positions is essential in the aviation safety field, especially in airport traffic management. This study proposes a two-step vortex-core locating method which uses the Gabor filter to make a preliminary locating and the velocity range distribution to make a fine locating consequently. The combination of Gabor filter and Doppler velocity distribution can improve the method's adaptability to complex background wind field and mitigate the impact of noise. Numerical examples and field detection campaigns from Changsha Huanghua International Airport and Hong Kong International Airport have well verified the good performance of the method, in terms of both accuracy and real time.