LIDAR put into operational use

The LIght Detection And Ranging System, or LIDAR for short, was put into operational use on 31 May 2004.

The LIDAR was installed on the rooftop of the Air Traffic Control Complex of the Hong Kong International Airport in mid-2002 for windshear detection under non-rainy weather conditions. It has been running in a continuous manner, i.e. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since August 2002.

As a majority of pilot reported windshear events at the airport occur in non-rainy weather conditions, the LIDAR has become an indispensable tool for the Observatory's aviation forecasters in the provision of the windshear alerting service. Since the use of LIDAR in August 2002, the hit rate (i.e. probability of detection) of windshear alerts issued by the Observatory has increased by 10% by the end of May 2004. Over the same period, the false alarm rate was on a decreasing trend. In this connection, the LIDAR was commissioned for operational use in windshear alerting with effect from 31 May 2004. To further enhance the windshear alerting service for the airport, the Observatory will continue to optimize the LIDAR based windshear detection methods and automate the alerts.

Probability of detection of HKO's windshear alerting service