371 19. Storm Avoidance Hardware T will not insull your intelligenee by lecturing on tho hazards of thunderstorms. Any serious pilol is well aware of the reality of the threat, In (hig chapter I will cover the characteristics and. proper usc of several different pieces of storm avoidanee hardware. Of course, the best hardware is your cyes. If the sky ahead looks ugly, stay out of it, regardless of what your cleclronics say, And the bast software is your judgment. If your gut focling is that carrying on is not the best idea, thea it isn't ‘The weather will almost certainly be better tomorrow, if not in two hours, None of the hardware discussed below is meant to guide you through an active area of thunderstorms, It is meant to help yeu stay cul of Radar "Radar" stands for RAdio Detection And Ranging. Just as a sound wave bounces off an object and retums as an echo to a listener, or a lighl wave reflects from an object and returns as a visual image to an observer, so toa microwave eqn bounce off an object and return to areeciver. Modern X-band airborne weather radars transmit a short duration, fairly ‘high power cone-shaped pulse with a froquancy of 9375 Mlle, The pulse travels at the speed of light. Alter the pulse is sent, the transmitter shuts down, and a receiver comes up to wait for an ccho, Some objects reflect the pulse, bouncing a part of the original signal back to the airborne antenna, ‘which has momentarily ceased transmitting and is now listening for the return, The signal is chem sent to the receiver, whiel notes three things: @) tho round-trip time for the pulse, (ii) the strength of the returning signal, and Gii) the direction the antenna was pointed when the pulse was sent and the ‘echo was beard, ‘The round trip time for the pulse is easily converted into distance, since the speed of the signal is known, It takes 12.36 microseconds for cach two-mile round trp, or for each one mile to the target. The slreagth of the signal tells ahout the size and the refloctivily of the target being struck by the pulse. And the dircetiom the antenna was ‘pointing identifies the azimuth of the target, i.c., its relative bearing in relation to the nose of the aircrall,372 Storm Avoidance Hardware Not every object struck is equally reflective, Some objecis are more likely ‘to absorb or scatter the pulse, while others arc betLer at bouncing it back to ‘the antenna. So the radar "secs" certain objects betier than others. From most reflective (ic, visible to the radar) Lo least reflective, the order of precipitation objects is: wet hail, rain, ice crystals, wet snow, dry hail, dry snow. Large reflective objects like large raindrops are more reflective than small ones. Objects on the ground are also niore or less reflective. City buildings and rocky cliffs will give 2 good return, where calm water will give no return, as the pulse bounees off the water and away from the antenna like a bounced basketball pass. Modem radar soreens are color coded to show strong retums as red, moderate as yellow, and weak as green, The antenna gencrally sweeps from 45 degrees left to 4S degrees right, Sathering data om a 90 degree wedge abead of the auplane. All of this data is then presented to the pilot on a control/indicator mych like a TV sereen. ‘The screen shows a forward-looking "map" of the radar returns. The center of the pulse swcops left and right along a plane originating al {he antenna and lying parallel to the horizon line ahead, as long as the system is within its stabilization limits, Ths inclination of this scan-plane (up and down in relation to the horizon ahead) is called the antenna tilt angle, and ‘the tilt is typically controfled by a knob on the indicator. Stabilization A. number of modern radars receive piteh and roll information from a vertical gyro and use thal information to hold the antenna scan-plane steady as the airplane banks and pitches, [t works as if the antenna itself were mounted on a gyro stabilized platform, so as the airplane pitches and banks, the antenna continues to sweep in a plane that is fixed parallel to the horizon ahead and constant in pitch. Without stabilization, a bank to the left would cause the beam (0 sweep into the ground at the left, and the screen would show a strong smear of ground returns om that side. Situilarly, a pitch down could fill the sereen with ground retums, and a pitch up could cause the beam to look over ths top of somo of ths precipitation ahead (Next time you get a chanee, try this: Cover the attitude indicator and tum off the radar stabilization. Caa you keep the wings level by referemoe to the radar screen? Ground returns on the left mean left wing, down, }Storm Avotdance Hardware 373 Stabilization systems do have their limits, though, Gcnoral aviation radar ystems are commonly limited lo about 25 degrees of combined pitch, roll, and manual tile Resolution "Resolution" has to do with the ability of the radar system to differentiate between separate targets Thore are wo resolution preblems inherent in any radar system, First, the pulse that is sent out Jasts for a short, but fits, period of time, called the pulse widih—nol to be confused with the beam width. If the pulse width were Wo Tong, then the: last part of the signal would still be going out 05 the first part began (o be reflected back by Th, PULSE \ Figure 1. Wide ben with creates wziviuth resolution profiler, nearby objects: sines the receiver is off during the transmit time, tbe radar would he "blind” to nearby objects. A Tong pulse width also makes nearby objeets on the same azimuth merge together on the display, But shorteningS74 Storm Avoidance Hardware the pulse width reduces the energy im the pulsc and makes it more difficult todetect the echoes, Modern systems like the Bendix RDS 81 have a pulse width thal varies aulomatically between 7.5 and 15,4 microseconds, as the pilot changes the range seltmr om the display. This corresponds to a blindness or resolution loss of between .6 miles on short range and 1.2 miles ‘on Long range: The second resolution problem has te do with the ability o distinguish botween two laterally separated objecis, This is called azimuth resobetion ‘The pulss going out at any one time is nol a dine of cncrgy, it is a three- dimensional cone, like a flashlight beam, And the cone is dnirly wide. Every time a pulse is fired, an 18 inch antenna shines out a cone of energy 5.5 degrees wide. Fora 12 inch antenna, the beam width is 8 degrees, and for a 10 inch antenna (whieh is common on general aviation airplanes), it is LO deprees, ‘The larger the antenna, the tighter the focus of tho radar beam. As we will soe, this lightness of focus is a definite virtue, so you will ‘want as large an antenna as you can fil. The small rectangular antennae located inside the leading edge of the wing on single-engine airplancs suffer most from resolution problems, especially in the vertical dimension. Thoir small size also limits the amount of outgoing oncrgy: as we will see, this worsens their attenuation and shadow problems. Refer to Figure 1, Two separate precipitation arcas lic on cither side of cur track Our radar, which has a 10 inch antenna, sweeps from left to right, Three pulses arc shown, Ths center of the pulse cone is shown as a solid line, and the outer edges of the concs as dotted lines, The pulses are left 20 degrees, center, and right 20 degrees. Whsn Pulse 1 is sent oul. a return comes back from the left cloud, and the radar records an ache on that one azimuth—left 20 deerses, The programing in the receiver instructs the indicator to light up some of the pixels on the left 20 degree azimuth at the range determined by the time delay of the return. Note that returns from the pulse cone are mapped (o a line on the indicator, When Pulse 2 is sent out returns come from both clouds, but the radar interprets this as an echo on the ove azimuth at the center of the pulse, When Pulse 3 is sent out, an echo is recorded on the right 20 degree azittuth due to the righi-hand precipitation ares, Sinee the clouds are Jess than 10 degrees apart, echoes arrive continually as the radar sweeps from Pulse | to Pulse 3, and the system interprets this as a single wide object. As the clouds get closer, the radar will be able to distinguish between them once they are separated by more than one beum width—once a beam can fit between the objects, TtStorm Avoidance Hardware 375 ‘Figure 2 Seuing the tlt so the bottom of the radar beam ts parallel to the rou should be obvious that a biguer antenna, with a narrower beam width, could differomtiate the objects at greater Tange, and that sealer anteange have resolution problems. Pulse beams have height as well as width, ‘This gives rise to a parallel problem with respect to differentiating vertically spaced objects, like thunderstorms silling over moutitains ‘Tilt Management ‘The pilot can control the tilt of the plane along which the center of the pulse sweeps. He or she oan tilt it down and paint the ground, or up to Took al or ‘aver the tops of the clouds. Much of the art and scienee of using radar involves tilt management, We musl consider the optimum wht angle in various circumstances, and we must also figure out haw to point the amienna316, Storm Avoidance Hardware where we want it, This is much more involved than just turning the till knob to see what happens. THP. ‘Lo begin with, itis handy t know how to set the tilt the bottom of the boam Lies parallel 1o the surface of the earth as shown in Figure 2. If ‘We seaii at this angle we can be sure that whatever pops up on our sereen lies ahead and above us. This is certainly where we want to be watching, There is a trick to finding this ° Tan(B) = CB/AB oN a - —S it, and 1 believe Archie "| ‘Trammell should be credited wilh finding it. ‘The term "TIP" is alse his, (See the "Sources" at the end of this chapter.) To make sense of the trick, we must first review some facts about triangles. Refer to Figure 3, and recall that the tangent of L = angle p, written Tan(B}, equals Figure 3. Definition of tangcat. the ratio of the length of side BC tothe length of side AB. Gr ‘Tan(p) = BC/AB, Now look at the airplane in Figure 4. The pilot has tiled his radar down until it shows a solid band of ground returns starting 90 the 20 nm are. The pilot wants te set the lilt so that the bottom of the hear is parallel to the Earth's surface, but how much shauld the tilt be raised (0 aecomplish this? Inspection of the figure reveals that the tilt should be raised by @ degrees. The tangent of p is equal to BC/AB; in other words, ‘Tan(B) equals our altitude (in feet) above the surfitce divided by 121,520 feet (which is 20 nm). With AB fixed at 20 nm, angle B ly varices with BC, our altitade above the ground. Table 1 shows a sample of altitudes and B values, with AB equal to 20 nm, obvi ‘So here is the punch line: Suppase you are 10,000 fect above the surface and you want to aim the bottom of your radar beam parallel to the Earth ‘You till.down until ground clutter fills the space just past 20 miles, and you note yourtilt reading. Let's say itis -4 degrees. Now you till up from that senting by about 5 degrees, ic, you set your tit at +1 degrees, Notice from the table tha the tilt-change value in degrees is very close to one-half theStorm Avoidance Hardware 37 Table 1 Angle down (B} to reach 20 nm point ALT (AGL) § 5000 2M loo00 47 15000 Ot 20000 9.35 25000 L163 30000 13.87 gre 4, Tileing down unil ground returns start at the 20 rm ac.378 Storm Averdance Hardware altitude AGL in thousands. That is, at 20,000 feet AGL the correction, is almost exactly half of 28, So you don't nced t© memorize the lable or do trig ncar thunderstorms, Just find the tilt for ground clutter at 20 miles and tilt up from that by half the altide AGL in thousands, ‘This gets your radar looking at the arce that should most. interest. you—ahcad. and above. HEP, Height Evaluation Procedure, gain, we aust review a fact about triangles, Look onee more at Figure 4, Assume that angle B is ons degree, Tan(1*) = .017455064, so the height BC equals 017455054 times the distance AB, If we compute the height of a | degree slope at ‘various distances, we get Table 2 ‘Table 2 Height of One Degree Slope at Various Distances Distance Height Lam= 6076 fl 106 ft 10 om= 60760 ft 1061 fi ‘) om ~ 121520 f 2121 A) om ~ 243040 f 4242 ft 60 om = 364560 ft 6363 ft Again, the gods of triangles smile upon us. Notice that if you add two zeros to the distance in nautical miles, you come very close to the height in fect of a 1 degroe slope at that distance, For example, at 20 nm, the height is 2121; and at 60 nm, it is 6363. And as long as we work with fairly small angles, it is approximatcly truc that the height of a dor 7 dogree slope is 4 or 7 times the height of a 1 degree slopc. Soa 5 degree slope, for example, at 20 miles is about 5 times 2000, or 10,000 fest Of what use is all this? Suppose we are painting ah echo fifty miles ahead, and we wonder how far up it extends. We have already decided not to go through it, but if itis a real tall cell, we are going to stay especially dar away. How do we cstimate the height? First we perform TIP; Le, we set the bottom of our beam at our current altitude as discussed in dheStorm Avoidance Hirrdware 379 previous scction. Ther we Gilt up until we can barely see the return Suppose we tilt up 6 degrees (a accomplish this, At $0 nm, each degree is about 5000 feet, s0 6 degrees is about 30,000 feet. This shows thut the top of the return extends about 30,000 feet above our ‘present altitude. Soifwe ara at 15,000 fect msl, the ocho top is at 45,000 fect, and we definitely do not want to go anvchere within 20 miles of iL In fact the ecll may extend above 43,000 fect. Remember the radar sees only the precipitation, not the ‘whole cloud TUT, Tie Up Teeknatyne. [have sat in the cockpits of airliners walching ‘the flight crow negotiate areas of embedded thunderstorms. ‘The pilot not flying (PNF) is almost totally devoted to radar manauement and intorpretation, while the pilol flying consults with the PNF on the best plan and thea manouyers the airplane accordingly. Single pilot operations do not afford us this luxury, and sinee ‘TIP atd HEP can take precious time and concentration, we may sometimes want w [all back om a simpler strategy. ‘Trammell suggests the "tilt up technique” (TUT). The idea is that we simply tilt the radar up 10 degrees, With the antenna angled up that much, distamt returns must he large, tall cells, and we will sce them far ‘enough out to bern scarching for a wide route around them, For example, if we see a cell al 40 miles, the top will be 40,000 fect above our altitude (Cells that first appear at the 20 mile range will be 20,000 fect above us, and should certainly be avoided also. Be sure to note that thig does not mean that we sel the lilt at 10 degrocs up on the indicator; it moans that we tilt up 10 degrees from whatever is a level sean, ic, from TLP. Attenuation and Radar Shadow When a radar pulse is transmiticd into the atmosphere, part of its energy is absorbed by objects in the atmosphere, part rlances off objects and continues on away ftom the antenna, and part is reflected back io the untcnna, Tho progressive weakening of the pulse is called attenuation There are two major types of atienuation—one due to distance and one duc to the effet of objects Just as the intensity of illumination (or light cnergy) is inversely proportional to the square of the distance of the light source, so t09 is the snergy af the microwave radar pulse inversely proportional 10 the square380 Storm Avoidance Hardware of the distance. The intensity of illumination of a candle 20 feet away is four times as high as the intensity of the same candle 40 feet away, and the reflected radar energy of a target 40 miles away is one-fourth of that from the same target 20 miles away. If this offoot were not compensated for in the reosiver, Largets Would have the scary feature of growing and intensifying on the radar soresn as they are approached. But modem radar receivers are programmed to take this effect into account. The King KWX 56, for example, has a sensitivity timing control (STC) that compensates for distance altenuation within 40 nautical miles, ‘There is also an extended STC circuit for yregter distances, bul il is not complclely offoctive, and objects do appear to grow and intensify as they get closer, 40 NM 20 NM hadow Ground Returns ‘Figure 5. Nearby cloud causes allenuation ‘The more serious attonuation problem is duc to the objects the radar pulse encounters. Each pulse sends ont a given amount of microwave sncrgy. When thc pulsc cncounters objects like raindrops, some of the energy is absorbed by tho drops (they got microwaved and warmed),Storm Avoidance Hardware 81 some glances off the drops and scatters away from the antenna, and some is reflected back to the antenna, If the pulse encounters a great ‘many drops, «i! of the radar energy may be absorbed, scattered, and reflected with the disturbing result that none of the energy passcs through the area to look for objects farther away, Thus, strong precipitation will "shadow" or hide objects farther away. Telling a shadow from an honest clear area can be (ricky, Perhaps the best test is to lilt the radar down until there is ground clatter at the same distance as the suspected shadow. (Sce Figure 5.) If the precipitation is causing attenuation, you will see ground returns next to the shadow, but nothing in the shadow behind the strong retura, If the pulse eould get through the object casting the shadow, you should see ground returns in ihe "clear" arca also. But it can't, because the precipitation is strong enough to causc attenuation, It should go without saying that if a small area is casting a shadow, you do not want to fly into it—nol only do you not know what is an the athor side, but the cbject creating the shadow is itself dense and scary. In fact the object im Figure § has a number of warning signs; First, there is a steep gradient in the upper right-hand corer, This means the intensity changes quickly over a short distance. Second, the retum has scalloped edges, hooks, fingers, and U-shaped indentations—all suggesting hail When flying in a widespread, solid area of moderately heavy rain, the radar may continually show that itis “clear” just 30 miles ahcad. Bul the radar may be attenvating and geting no dala irom more than 30 miles How can you tell if a clear arca on your radar is am honest area of mo precipitation or a shadow from closer precipitation? You can usc the tilt control to iry te paint an object, perhaps a ground return, beyond the clear arca on the screen, If you tan gel a return from bevond the clear roa, then the pulse i gelling through and the area in question is probably Tree of heavy rain, (Though if you are at high altitude, you may be painting over the Lop of the attenuating abject) Or you could check with flight watch or ATC. Ask specifically if they are able to look at real-Lime weather radar, and if'so, ask whut they see, Tn some arcas of the country, this works beautifully. [you are fortunate enough to have it on board, vou ean refer to your Stormscope or Strikefinder, But most important, understand the attemuation/shadowing problem and do-not fly into a suspect arca382 Storm Avoidance Hardware Gain Some radars have manually variable gain controls. This allows the pilot to reduce the seasitivity of the reociver. As you gradually reduoe the pain, the red areas become yellow, the yellow become green, and the econ fade away Ultimately, the whole pickure eaa be erased, What is the use of this? Suppose you are flying in an area where the screen shows lots of yellow, You may wondsr, "Whal/s the roughest area in here?" If you slowly reduce the gain, you will see the weakest. yellow arcas bexin lo tun green, The last arcas ta tum green are sending: the strongest returns In elder monochrome radars, you can use the gain much as you would the squelch on a radio. Turn the gain up until the screen Gills with clutter, ‘then tun if down just enough tor make the elutter go away Looking at the Ground When the radar unteana is pointed down, some of the beam wall be reflected back and "paint" objects on the ground. Vertical structures like buildings and rocky mountainsides give fuirly slrong eoturns, while other objects, like calm water, will bounce nearly all the cnorey away from the antenna, showing the lake as a dark area surrounded by ground retums. T have had some luck, for instance, flying into the San Francisco Bay ara mapping the bay, the shorelines, and even the bridges. And 1 am sure the radar would be especially usoful in finding islands or shorelines generally, But overall my personal feeling is that the small radar sysisims, especially those with small antennae, de a mediaere job of mapping the ground If you already know where you are, you can sometimes find a corielation between the adar sereen and the terrain, but except near distinctive bodies of water, you are not likely to rely on the radar to distinguish betworh Orland and Red Bluff It is a good idea, though, to keep your radar on cvon in good weather to practice the art of ground mapping and to look for the radar signature of the areas vou frequent. It can also be informative to somtimes tlt the radar down so that the top one-third of the screen fills with ground returns. Then as you My toward an arca of precipitation, you will soc it appear first among the ground returns, and then move down the screen as a distinctive return Now tryStorne Avoidance Hardware 383 TIRP to see how scary the return is, Then set TIP as you pick a way around hovel, Gst the picture’ Stormscopes and Strikefinders 1 believe these units are fairly well understood by the pilot comm and I am not going to devote much space to them The feature that makes these devices s0 easy lo use is Lhal they are passive, so there is nor ‘much for the pilot to do besides Lum Uhem on and look at thor. The principle al work is simple enough—where there are thunderstorms, there is lightning. And lightning cmits am electrical signal that can be picked up by the airborne receiver, The direction from which the signal comes can be determined very casily and accurately om principles understood sine the first days of the direction finder and later ADF Determining the distance is another matter. In fact, the distance can only be guessed at by the unit, Stormscepes and Strikelindets note the characteristics of the signal {rom the Lightning, and then based on studies ‘of how the characteristics of the signal chamge with distanee, the unit assigns a distance lo the strike and displays a dot at that azimuth and There are a fot of differences between radar and lightning detesiors. (i) Radar looks at objects, mainly precipitation, while lightning detectors look at cloctrical discharges. Radar does not distinguish between heavy precipitation and a thunderstorm, though the latter generally produces the former, and you can use HEP to guess at the tops of the precip. You will hear people say that they will fly into strong radar returns if their lightning detector does not show any dots, They get lots of rain, but no strong turbulence, Personally. | don't have much enthusiasm for this. at least not if have to pay for the paint jobs. (i) Radar takes much more ground sludy to understand well, while the lighining detectors are fairly simple, And it takes much more attention in the air to get the most information from the radar, so lighining detectors are especially handy for single-pilot operations, (iii) Radar shows you where weather is, while lightning detectors show you where 1 isn’, By this [ mean that a dot at 12 obtock tells you that something is going on straight abcad, but you don’t really know how far away itis or what itis. In that sense, it is quite uncerlain. On the other hand, no dots tells you that nothing is going on, and this is excellent data lo bave. ‘There have been many times384 Storie Avoideuace Hardware that J have stood on the ramp looking up at a grey overcast wondering if anything scary is going on up there. 1 ¢an simply tum on the lightning devector in the airplane and soc at a glance that there are no thunderstorms around, T have eome to really trust this, And you can't get this kind of information from an airplane's radar. Summary and Practical Suggestions If you have radar, use it all the timie—even in good weather—al least until ‘you get very comfortable with it, Practice setting TIP, and HLP, and TUT. Play with the gain and the map mode. If you see a storm off int the distance to the side, turn toward it and study the return. How does the view on the sereen compare with the view out the window? One thing you want to be sure you don’t do, however, is operate the radar on the ground near metal objects or people, The energy transmitted is real, and it ean do real damage to people, and a strong reflection from a metal building can damage the receiver, Sources Bose, Keith, Avtation Electranicy, 4th od., Howard W. Sams & Co, (Indianapolis, 1981). Heltrick, Albert,.Modern Aviation &tectronics, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1984), Pilot's Guile, KWX 36 Digital Color Radar, King Radio Corp. (Olathe, KS) Pilot's Guide, RDS 81/82, Bendix!King (Olathe, KS). Trammell, Archie, "Antenna Tilt The Key Radar Control,” Brsizess anc Commercietl Aviation (June 1987), pp. 38-62