A passive millimeter wave camera for aircraft landing in low visibility conditions

Fog and low visibility conditions have hampered aviation since its inception. Fog-related accidents are numerous, and canceled take-offs and landings due to fog and low visibility conditions (Cat III) have significant economic impact on airlines, parcel carriers and general aviation. Millimeter waves have good propagation properties in weather and give adequate spatial resolution when used to image the forward scene. Passive millimeter wave focal plane array cameras are new sensors which, integrated into future guidance and landing systems, promise to be an effective aid, or alternative, to existing technology for aircraft landings and take-offs under Cat III conditions. They can produce visual-like radiometric images at real time frame rates (up to 30 Hz), and are directly amenable to image fusion with infrared and visible images. TRW has been actively involved in developing and productizing this technology both at the hardware and the system levels. >