The World's First Dual LIDAR Windshear Alerting System

The Dual LIDAR Windshear Alerting System, first of its kind in the world, has been put into operational use at the Hong Kong International Airport since 13 December 2007. The System makes use of two LIDARs for windshear detection, viz. the LIDAR at the Air Traffic Control Complex (ATCX) for windshear alerting over the south runway, and the one at the northern fire station for alerting over the north runway. The use of runway-specific LIDAR follows the study of the performance of the latter LIDAR in the alerting of windshear over the north runway. Compared to the LIDAR at ATCX, it achieved a higher hit rate, lower false alarm rate and shorter alert duration per hit over 07LA, the most commonly used arrival runway corridor, in the windshear seasons of 2007. As such, with one LIDAR dedicated to each runway, more precise windshear alerting service to the departing and arriving aircraft can be provided. To improve data coverage over the south runway, the LIDAR at ATCX is tentatively scheduled for relocation to the southern fire station in early 2008.