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Introduction

Vergrößerung

Adverse weather conditions affect both flight safety and the operational use of airborne platforms. This problem becomes most evident during takeoff, landing and taxiing, but also reliable collision warning in airspace gains increasing importance. In all these cases it would be highly desirable to provide the pilot with visual information about the surrounding environment independent of any weather condition. A weather independent imaging system will also substantially increase the situation awareness of the crew without recourse to any external electronic guidance system. Available radar systems, like the synthetic aperture radar (SAR), have proofed as a valuable tool where weather independent imaging is required, but, inherent to the underlying principle, these systems suffer from a visualisation gap with respect to the forward looking direction.

SIREV (Sector Imaging Radar for Enhanced Vision) is an innovative radar system which has the potential to supply high quality radar images of a sector in front of the aircraft. Besides a map of the earths surface in flight direction, the image can be further processed to supply additional information about the topography and objects in the field of view. The sensor can be used in almost every kind of weather condition and due to its active illumination the operation is independent of daylight. SIREV is suitable for aircrafts as well as helicopters and allows the pilot even at very low visibility conditions to roll, to take off, to approach the targeted area, to detect obstacles, and to land safely.