TOKYO -- Mitsubishi Electric Corp. has been awarded a contract by Météo-France, the national meteorological service of France, to supply a Terminal Doppler Lidar system (DIABREZZA A Series) for use at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, France's second-busiest international airport, which handled 13.3 million passengers in 2017. Mitsubishi Electric will supply its first Terminal Doppler Lidar in Europe with this order. The company aims to expand its weather radar and lidar business, including Terminal Doppler Lidar, in global markets to net sales of about JPY2.5 billion ($22.2 million) by March 2021.

Neither the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar system for detecting wind shear around airports nor radar using microwaves to measure precipitation are effective in clear-weather conditions. To maximize prevention of aircraft accidents due to wind shear, detection is required under all conditions, not just during precipitation, which is why the integration of radar and lidar is especially crucial for large-scale airports.

A Terminal Doppler Lidar transmits laser beams and then detects light backscattered by dust and other particles in the air, which enables the system to measure line-of-sight wind speed using the Doppler frequency shift of the backscattered light. Mitsubishi Electric has developed a planar waveguide amplifier that extends the line-of-sight wind speed observation range to more than 20km and complies with Standards and Recommended Practices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an organization ensuring that civil aviation operations and regulations conform to international norms.

Mitsubishi Electric has been delivering Terminal Doppler Lidar systems to airports since 2015. Five systems supplied by the company are currently operating at Tokyo (Japan), Narita (Japan) and Hong Kong (China) international airports. Another two are scheduled to be delivered to Beijing Daxing (China) and Antalya (Turkey) international airports in 2018, prior to the delivery to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport.

Source: Mitsubishi Electric