1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,680 The measurement of wind turbulence and wind profiling systems are important both for energy 2 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:15,920 production and for air safety. We've never travelled so much for business or for pleasure 3 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:20,380 before. Flying more aeroplanes inevitably increases the risk that they'll encounter 4 00:00:20,380 --> 00:00:25,000 some turbulence. At the same time, we have to ensure that they remain the safest means 5 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:30,100 of transportation. Thanks to a consortium of small and medium enterprises and academic 6 00:00:30,100 --> 00:00:34,900 research partners, a software programme has been developed that can identify and eliminate 7 00:00:34,900 --> 00:00:42,100 underlying noise peaks in the electronic signals of wind profiles. 8 00:00:42,100 --> 00:00:48,420 When the plane encounters turbulence, its position is shifted. According to the level 9 00:00:48,420 --> 00:00:53,660 of turbulence, the movement is amplified. Sometimes the movement becomes very violent 10 00:00:53,660 --> 00:00:58,420 in the horizontal axis and in the vertical axis. This clearly influences the passenger's 11 00:00:58,420 --> 00:01:11,100 comfort level and can also constitute a certain risk. 12 00:01:11,100 --> 00:01:15,820 In order to measure the air movements in sensitive areas such as airports, we use radar wind 13 00:01:15,820 --> 00:01:21,220 profilers. German SME Syntec built this radar on the site of the Frankfurt airport for 14 00:01:21,220 --> 00:01:28,580 Deutsche Flugsicherung. 15 00:01:28,580 --> 00:01:32,620 This is the core of our installation. We're in a radar wind profiler that measures wind 16 00:01:32,620 --> 00:01:37,540 and air temperature. It's equipped with an acoustic sonic radio system. What you see 17 00:01:37,540 --> 00:01:42,780 here is the antenna whose total area is 25 square metres. The entire installation is 18 00:01:42,780 --> 00:01:51,940 200 square metres. The radar is combined with a very powerful sound system that consists 19 00:01:51,940 --> 00:01:57,740 of thousands of transmitters. The sound produced is reflected against the air at various altitudes 20 00:01:57,740 --> 00:02:02,100 which detects air waves. The radar can then produce an image of these air movements along 21 00:02:02,100 --> 00:02:05,860 a column of around one and a half kilometres high. 22 00:02:06,860 --> 00:02:14,860 It's positive here below 700 metres and then it changes sign and wind speeds are on the 23 00:02:14,860 --> 00:02:18,660 order of five to seven metres per second. 24 00:02:18,660 --> 00:02:23,100 Previously when aeroplanes or birds overflew the radar, the measurement was not recorded 25 00:02:23,100 --> 00:02:24,100 accurately. 26 00:02:24,100 --> 00:02:28,580 So this is a plane? 27 00:02:28,580 --> 00:02:34,940 This is the radar echo of a plane, yeah. So here's a very nice example. It shows various 28 00:02:34,940 --> 00:02:41,380 features. Here this is a measurement as it should be and as we expected. Here you see 29 00:02:41,380 --> 00:02:47,020 something off the wind trace. This could be a bird, which is not really a problem. But 30 00:02:47,020 --> 00:02:52,460 here in the fourth column you see a very strong signal and this is certainly belonging to 31 00:02:52,460 --> 00:03:00,420 an aircraft and we are entirely missing wind information here between 600 and 900 metres. 32 00:03:00,420 --> 00:03:05,900 And here again European SMEs gave us the solution to this problem of air safety. 33 00:03:05,900 --> 00:03:11,480 European Project MEPROS is a cooperation research project between seven SMEs, SHE Informations 34 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:16,340 Technologie, Sintec and METEC in Germany, Bristol Industrial and Research Associates 35 00:03:16,340 --> 00:03:22,140 and University of Salford Enterprises in the UK, Eula Electronica EICAS in Italy and the 36 00:03:22,140 --> 00:03:28,540 Espace Aérien Développement in France. 37 00:03:28,540 --> 00:03:33,300 These small and medium enterprises collaborated with the Fachhochschule in Worms and the Bremen 38 00:03:33,300 --> 00:03:40,180 University in Germany and with Aveiro University in Portugal. 39 00:03:40,180 --> 00:03:49,180 The EU contributed 511,700 Euros of the total MEPROS budget, which is 1,049,000 Euros. 40 00:03:49,180 --> 00:03:57,420 CETEM, the Bremen University's Zentrum für Techno-Mathematik, designed the mathematical 41 00:03:57,420 --> 00:04:02,620 instrument that made it possible, as it were, to make the plane's radar signatures disappear 42 00:04:02,620 --> 00:04:07,740 so that we can only measure wind turbulence. 43 00:04:07,740 --> 00:04:14,540 When an aeroplane overflies the antenna it reflects radar waves and when you measure 44 00:04:14,540 --> 00:04:22,500 these waves the result can give some erroneous interpretations on the speed of the wind. 45 00:04:22,500 --> 00:04:27,940 I'll demonstrate this. 46 00:04:27,940 --> 00:04:34,460 What you've just heard is the radio signal which I transformed into sound and this is 47 00:04:34,460 --> 00:04:37,220 the echo of an aeroplane. 48 00:04:37,220 --> 00:04:40,940 We call this a chirp in English. 49 00:04:40,940 --> 00:04:48,420 We'll make this interference disappear. 50 00:04:48,420 --> 00:04:55,700 This is the same signal but treated with the MEPROS tool. 51 00:04:55,700 --> 00:05:00,620 You can hear that the chirp has completely disappeared. 52 00:05:00,620 --> 00:05:04,860 This formula was designed through a collaboration between the Bremen University in Germany and 53 00:05:04,860 --> 00:05:10,660 the Aveiro University in Portugal. 54 00:05:10,660 --> 00:05:14,940 The participation of the Aveiro University consisted in optimising the algorithms for 55 00:05:14,940 --> 00:05:17,340 the project. 56 00:05:17,340 --> 00:05:21,940 We received data and the necessary information to work on these algorithms which we refined 57 00:05:21,940 --> 00:05:28,940 according to the parameters requested by the University of Bremen. 58 00:05:28,940 --> 00:05:37,900 And it works, aeroplane or not. 59 00:05:37,900 --> 00:05:42,980 It was essential that we met with companies in Rome, Lille in France and Ludwigshafen 60 00:05:42,980 --> 00:05:48,060 in Germany and Bristol in England to determine the details since the parameters had to be 61 00:05:48,060 --> 00:05:54,380 optimised to improve the quality of the product. 62 00:05:54,380 --> 00:06:04,860 The final product needed to adapt for multifunctional exploitation of potential markets. 63 00:06:04,860 --> 00:06:10,700 Some companies will resell the software, others will use it under a different form. 64 00:06:10,700 --> 00:06:14,260 This will allow them to increase the performance of the measuring equipment, especially for 65 00:06:14,260 --> 00:06:15,260 data quality. 66 00:06:15,260 --> 00:06:21,060 In terms of application, we have the air transport market where we'll obtain more specific data 67 00:06:21,060 --> 00:06:24,420 that will allow us to economise on fuel. 68 00:06:24,420 --> 00:06:29,020 Another application is the implementation of wind-generated parks which tend to be planned 69 00:06:29,020 --> 00:06:30,020 haphazardly. 70 00:06:30,020 --> 00:06:35,700 In future, this new software will allow them to be more effectively positioned. 71 00:06:35,700 --> 00:06:38,420 This will allow a higher return on investment. 72 00:06:38,420 --> 00:06:42,780 You see, we finally managed to transform our project into a real success story for 73 00:06:42,780 --> 00:06:44,540 all the partners involved.